The “Masoyise uxhatshazo olusekezwe kwisini ingakumbi amanina nabantwana!”- Let us overcome Gender-Based Violence, especially towards Women and Children, project implementation continues in South Africa’s Eastern Cape communities.
The project, supported by donor KNH, is based in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality in Zwide and Motherwell communities as well as in the Amathole District in the communities of Mbashe and Mnquma. This initiative seeks to develop and promote meaningful and inclusive youth participation through capacity building and mobilize communities to address harmful gender norms through gender transformative approaches.
‘‘We held an inception meeting in May at the Amathole district area where we engaged several stakeholders including government, the religious and traditional leadership and civil cociety representatives’’ said Patrick Godana, the lead of the project and Community Education and Mobilisation Provincial Manager.
‘’We then had a second kick-off meeting in August where selected local schools that we will be working with, namely Sakhisizwe High School, Boysenspark High School, Ndabankulu High School and Nondwe High Schools’’ he adds.
Sakhisizwe High School is a public school serving the poverty-stricken community of Zwide municipality. Boysen’s Park High School on the other hand, is a multi-racial school with Xhosa and Afrikaans speaking learners, servicing northern areas of the Nelson Mandela Metro municipality.
In the Amathole District, Ndabankulu High School and Nondwe High School were selected, both schools are in deep rural settings of what is formerly known as the Transkei Bantustan and are under resourced with high levels of poverty and GBV.
Since then, the project has had to appoint youth ambassadors for this project, to ensure that these young people advocate for gender justice and meaningfully participate in decision-making spaces.
‘’The criteria to choose youth ambassadors included looking for a gender balance, we wanted pupils who are active and are attending school regularly, and especially those who represent the marginalized groups like the LGBTQIA+. Their education commitments are prioritized, as project activities only take place after school, with consent from parents.’’ Godana explained.
During various consultations with Sonke, youth ambassadors have expressed how GBV affects them and the negative effects of the poor response from authorities to support the survivors.
As such, among other roles of these ambassadors is to represent youth in various platforms and advocate for their struggles especially based on gender-based violence issues.
Next year, the selected ambassadors will attend capacity building workshops, so as to engage the learners through the Each One , Teach One campaign in which they will be capacitated on various issues affecting the youth including sexual and reproductive health rights.
