The United States Mission to South Africa recently held a day of discussion with young people from Johannesburg to support the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence.
The event was a culmination of media training activities that took place during November, where 26 young women and men from across South Africa within the Dreams and She Conquers programmes received media training that focuses on using film to mobilise action towards social causes like gender-based violence in this instance.
At the training, participants created films through the voice of young people. Films providing possible solutions and a call to action to address gender-based violence.
“These short films formed part of a social media campaign called #GirlSafe that ran throughout the duration of the activism campaign. On 30 November, the young people got the opportunity to share the outputs of their media training and also interact with influencers, game-changers and their peers, in an effort to intensify the call to action to end gender-based violence,” said Kerry Schneider, assistant information officer for the US Embassy in Pretoria.
The expo hosted a series of empowerment sessions, panel discussions facilitated by young people from the Dreams cohort and celebrities considered as strong, positive role models for the young people and those who are interested in the fight against gender-based violence and the spread of HIV/Aids.
“This event also builds on the other previous capacity-building activities we started last year when we had the Dreams ambassadors leadership and media training at Dinokeng, and at the Women’s Empowerment event with Oprah Winfrey in December 2016.”
