Sonke Gender Justice

Publication Type: Case Studies

  • “Sport Laughs in the Face of Discrimination”

    “Sport Laughs in the Face of Discrimination”

    Street soccer is a long-standing African tradition and played in teams of six on a small field, with each game lasting only seven minutes. Sonke teamed up with Ambitious Youth of Khayelitsha (AYK), a crime prevention programme for youth, and youth development organisation Amandla Kulutsha to run a soccer tournament in Site B of Khayelitsha. Both organisations work with youth and sports, while Sonke – which has an ongoing partnership with Grassroots Soccer, an NGO using soccer to fight HIV and AIDS – brought to the table long-standing expertise in gender, human rights, health and HIV.

    Site B of Khayelitsha is an informal settlement where gansterism, drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, unemployment and poverty are major problems. To get teenagers and young adults off the streets, and particularly out of the shebeens (beer halls), soccer has proven to be one of the most effective means to encourage team spirit, motivate teenagers to set goals and give them a positive outlook on life. This case study looks at the impact the soccer tournament had on its participants and the overall positive effect sport has on bridging the gap between foreigners and South Africans, in light of the xenophobic attacks that occurred shortly before the tournament was held.

  • Silence Speaks

    Silence Speaks

    While stereotyped representations of masculinity and sensationalized portrayals of gender-based violence can readily be found in global popular media, the Sonke digital stories present an alternative vision—one that emphasizes the importance of reflection, hope, and a vision of change.

    Silence Speaks has worked with Sonke to coordinate nine workshops, including two pilot sessions, an assistant facilitator training workshop with Sonke staff, three rural workshops with men and women affected by HIV and AIDS, two rural workshops with young people affected by HIV and AIDS, and one workshop with traditional leaders. In each of these sessions, participants explored how their past life experiences have led to their personal commitments to challenge violence and expose its connection to HIV and AIDS.

    The workshop series has served numerous purposes, including familiarizing Sonke staff with the techniques of digital storytelling; supporting the healing of survivors of violence; building local leadership among rural residents impacted by HIV and AIDS; providing youth with skills for avoiding abuse and protecting themselves from HIV and other STIs; and elevating the voices of trusted community leaders who are speaking and acting with courage in support of gender equality. Together, the collection of Sonke stories recounts hardships and celebrates achievements related to everyday struggles with memory and identity along with the search for safety, acceptance, and dignity.

  • The Equality Courts as a Tool for Gender Transformation

    The Equality Courts as a Tool for Gender Transformation

    In March 2009, Sonke Gender Justice Network filed a complaint at the Equality Court in Johannesburg against the ANC Youth League Leader, Julius Malema. The complaint was lodged in response to remarks he made to university students concerning Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser claiming that she likely enjoyed herself during the incident. Sonke’s Equality Court case alleges hate speech, unfair discrimination and harassment of women, and is only the second high profile gender equality case to be taken to the Equality Courts since their inception in 2003.

    This case study provides an analysis of the Equality Courts as a new legal forum for gender transformation work by examining the history and theoretical foundations for the courts, the procedures for utilising the courts, the problems and challenges faced when using the courts, and documenting Sonke’s own experiences in lodging its case.

  • Traditional Leaders Wield the Power, and They Are Almost All Men

    Traditional Leaders Wield the Power, and They Are Almost All Men

    In African society, the sphere of influence of traditional leaders continues to be strong, especially in rural areas. As heads of their communities, traditional leaders are key decision makers and the custodians of tradition, culture and rites. Civil society organisations have realised that if they want to tackle important social issues in rural communities on the continent, such as HIV, gender equality, violence or crime, they have to get traditional leadership on board, as a gateway to the people within the communities they want to reach.

    A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including South African Sonke Gender Justice Network, Ubuntu Institute, CARE International and Zambian Women For Change (WFC), work with traditional leaders on the continent on how to address gender-based violence, promote gender equality and reduce HIV/AIDS in their communities. Through the support of traditional leadership, they involve men (and women) to take action in their own homes and communities to end domestic and sexual violence, change their perception of masculinity and address HIV and other health-related issues. This case study provides an overview of the efforts made by organisatons in tackling harmful traditional practices across South Africa and other African countries by working together with traditional leaders in communities.

  • MenCare in Matzikama

    MenCare in Matzikama

    In the northern areas of the Western Cape governed by the Matzikama municipality, almost half of the population is jobless. Liquor stores in the towns provide a predictable outlet for people’s boredom and frustrations-and contribute to a range of social problems: fighting and aggression, substance abuse, domestic and sexual violence, child abuse and absent parenting.

    The Matzikama Men and Boys Network – a partnership between Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke), Gender Transformation Network and the DSD – is a new initiative in the area and the first of its kind. The network aims to promote gender equality and to encourage men and boys to play a positive role in their families and communities. Since it was created in August 2012, the network has been actively implementing Sonke’s MenCare campaign, a campaign Sonke co-chairs together with the Brazilian NGO Instituto Promundo and other global partners. This case study provides an overview and outcomes of the Network and the implemented campaign.

  • Integrating Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence and Engage Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality Through National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS

    Integrating Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence and Engage Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality Through National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS

    The UN Interagency Working Group on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV, (represented by UNDP, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UN Women and WHO), in collaboration with the MenEngage Alliance, Sonke Gender Justice and ATHENA Network, has convened two global consultations on Integrating Strategies to Address Gender-based Violence and Engage Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality through National Strategic Plans (NSPs) on HIV and AIDS. The consultations aimed to review current National Strategic Plans on HIV AIDS, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of these plans with regard to addressing gender-based violence and engaging men and boys for gender equality, and to develop country action plans for advocacy to address priority issues and gaps. The consultations were designed and undertaken in a highly participatory manner, with an emphasis on cross-country and regional sharing of experience, peer-to-peer and South-to-South learning, and the collaborative development of country action plans. This report highlights discussions and outcomes of various countries that took part in the consultations, reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of their respective NSPs.

  • Africa Belongs to All Those Who Live and Work in it

    Africa Belongs to All Those Who Live and Work in it

    South Africa prides itself on having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The Bill of Rights guarantees a host of basic political, cultural and socio-economic rights to all who are resident in the country. Yet refugees and migrants face great difficulties in accessing information and services, often due to legal insecurities, language and cultural barriers, discrimination and the frequent refusal by officials to provide services to which they are constitutionally entitled. Similarly, refugees and migrants are often overlooked in local HIV and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention efforts.

    Apart from being faced with frequent human rights violations, refugees and migrants sometimes experience amplified GBV and power struggles in their communities due to a breakdown in traditional community support structures, including families and a friendly familiar neighbourhood. Many have also been victims of violence and abuse in situations of civil unrest and war in their home countries, and face possible loss of income and an uncertain future.

    In addition, many refugees experience discrimination, victimisation, xenophobia and even violence from South African citizens, including the police, border and immigration officials. They are often blamed for social problems, such as unemployment, poverty, crime and high levels of generalised violence.

    Recognising that refugee and migrant populations are particularly vulnerable to violence and HIV, and that they often have reduced access to information and services, Sonke instituted a Refugee Health and Rights Project (RHR) in 2008. To support refugees to access their rights and to challenge the xenophobia that undermines access to health, dignity and rights, Sonke uses interrelated strategies to bring about sustainable change. These strategies will be explored in this case study.

  • Working with Men and Boys

    Working with Men and Boys

    We have advanced significantly in the last 20 years to make gender and gender inequalities visible in terms of the lives of women and girls. We have, however, too often neglected how gender plays out in the lives of men and boys – to the detriment of women, and to the detriment of men and boys. All too often the quest for gender equality is still characterised as a zero sum game in which women’s gains are presented as requiring significant but inevitable losses for men. We continue to fall too easily into a view of the world of men as perpetrators, or careless, self-centred or potentially violent and women as victims and disempowered.

    With this event, and these case studies, we offer a more optimistic and at the same time a more comprehensive view. We seek to call attention to the relational nature of gender – that is constructed in the power relations between women and men, and within groups of men and groups of women. In other words, we posit that gender is about women and men, and girls and boys, and argue that it is intertwined with the structural factors of poverty and inequality that frame their lives at the individual level of their relationships and daily realities. “Gender” as a concept calls our attention to how these power inequalities play out in the daily lives of men and women, boys and girls, and how women, girls, boys and men are too often socialised to live inside rigid constraints about what women and men are supposed to do and be.

    As we look at research from Africa on the state of women, we can focus on the negative – and there is no shortage of it. Many men continue to use violence, or remain indifferent to the needs and vulnerabilities of women and girls, while others use their economic, social and physical power to exploit women and girls. But – and this part we too often miss – there are also stories of change. There are changes happening throughout Africa, for the better in how women and men live together, at the country level, at the cultural level, at the community level and at the individual level, which these case studies provide an overview of.

  • Branching Out

    Branching Out

    One Man Can is Sonke’s flagship campaign that promotes the idea that everyone has a role to play in creating a better, more equitable and more just world. It encourages men and boys to take action – “to build a movement, demand justice, claim our rights and change the world”, with particular focus on ending domestic and sexual violence and to promote healthy, equitable relationships that protect against HIV.

    This case study provides the process, development and community involvement of Sonke opening its first One Man Can Branch in Khayelitsha. It highlights the successes and challenges faced by staff and community members, thereby paving the way for improving and learning for future branches.

  • One Man Can Challenge Xenophbobia

    One Man Can Challenge Xenophbobia

    Originally published as Showing the Suffering of the Violated in the Johannesburg Star newspaper on page 7, December 12 2008. Written by Ufrieda Ho.

  • Enlisting Men for Women’s Equality

    Enlisting Men for Women’s Equality

    According to numerous studies, South Africa has the highest incidence of reported rape in any country. In 2006 the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) surveyed 1,370 male volunteers from 70 rural villages. It found that close to one in four of the men surveyed had participated in sexual violence. Of the total, 16.3 per cent had raped a non-partner or had participated in gang rape, while 8.4 per cent had been sexually violent towards an intimate partner.

    Other studies have shown that the first sexual experience for many adolescents and young women is unwanted. According to research by the Witwatersrand University published in 2004, almost one-third of sexually experienced women report that their first sexual encounter was not consensual. That same year, the MRC reported that one woman is killed every six hours by an intimate partner in South Africa — the highest substantiated rate anywhere in the world.

    Sonke Gender Justice is trying to move beyond workshops and small events to engage men — and women — in broader activism and campaigns. The goal is to enlist many more organizations and communities and to develop a national response. Sonke’s One Man Can campaign is one reflection of the broadened approach and is explored in this case study.

  • “Don’t Keep it to Yourself”

    “Don’t Keep it to Yourself”

    Sonke’s Digital Storytelling Project involves workshops that guide participants in creating their own multimedia stories that address critical issues in their communities such as rape, gender roles, HIV/AIDS, and violence. A facilitator from the Silence Speaks project of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California worked with Sonke staff to support workshop participants in speaking out about the challenges faced by youth living in rural South African communities.

    Mhlontlo Municipality is characterized by high rates of HIV/AIDS, widespread poverty, and violence. Children in this region deal with a host of extremely difficult challenges: loss of family members due to HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, shortage of food and clean water, and sexual abuse. Sonke’s involvement in the region reflects its overall mission to address HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence as matters of national and regional priority through a variety of tactics in local contexts, such as gender equality training, responsible fatherhood projects, and individual skill building. Through the partnership with Silence Speaks, the project was able to begin bringing young people’s voices to the forefront of these efforts. Silence Speaks supports the telling and witnessing of stories of survival and courage; its topics vary from violence and abuse to armed conflict and stigma/marginalization. The rationale behind this work is that encouraging the telling of otherwise silenced stories will help workshop participants address and move beyond pain and grief and explore their capacities for leadership and involvement in community transformation for justice.

    The eight students involved in the digital storytelling workshop produced stories covering a wide range of topics – from sexual assault, to living with HIV positive family members, to the dangers of drinking contaminated drinking water. The processes and emerging themes and stories are outlined in this case study.

  • Involving the Other Gender

    Involving the Other Gender

    The rates of violence against women and HIV/AIDS are extremely high in KwaZulu-Natal. Because most of the perpetrators of violence against women are men, it is important to look at their specific identity and behavior in the context of historical South Africa and how that is affecting masculinity today. The Men as Partners (MAP) program, created by EngenderHealth, works with men on issues surrounding violence against women and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The program runs workshops that engage men in confronting gender inequality and stereotypes. There are two MAP programs in KZN, one run by Sonke Gender Justice in Nkandla and the other by Hope Worldwide in Durban.

    The complexity of Zulu traditions and confronting what could be seen as negative aspects of culture were important lessons learned in the research process. Also, the sustainability of such a project and community involvement from the government to local NGO’s was explored. The Men as Partners program is important in creating behavior and psychological changes in men on issues of violence against women and the spread of HIV/AIDS. This case study provides an overview of the MAP program by exploring these aspects.

  • Case Studies from the South African Men as Partners Network

    Case Studies from the South African Men as Partners Network

    HIV has infected an estimated 6 million South Africans, the highest number of any country and deaths resulting from the virus have already left around one million children orphans. Not only are women much more likely to be infected than men, but as a result of traditional gender roles, the burden of caring for those with AIDS-related illnesses also falls almost exclusively on the shoulders of women. Women’s greater vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is in part explained by South Africa’s epidemic levels of sexual and domestic violence. There were 51,249 cases of reported rape in 1999, the highest per capita rate in the world, although Rape Crisis Cape Town believes the real figure to be at least 20 times higher. Like in many parts of the world, South African men often act in ways that contribute to domestic and sexual violence, and high rates of HIV/AIDS. However, men can, and often do, play a critical role in promoting gender equity, preventing violence, and fostering constructive involvement in sexual and reproductive health.

    Spurred by the recognition that men’s attitudes and behaviors can either impede or promote sexual and reproductive health, international NGO, EngenderHealth, in partnership with the Planned Parenthood Association (PPASA), started the Men as Partners program (MAP) in South Africa in 1998. This case study provides an overview of the various activities the South African MAP Network has been involved in across the country.