MAMELLO – Their visit was as a result of a roadshow to different townships in the Sedibeng region by the department to commemorate 16 days activism for no violence against women and children.
The Department said it also saw it fit to educate and teach the community of Mamello as one of the kasis hard hit by Gender Based Violence.
Different forums such as victim empowerment, safety forums and rapid response task teams joint the programme.
Other governmental stakeholders such as Correctional Services, Community Safety, South African Police Services supported the visit.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, Ouma Madimabe a Manager at Social Development in Sedibeng explained the visit by different organizations in Mamello Informal Settlement.
“We are at Mamello to celebrate and commemorate 16 days of activism through educating communities about Gender Based Violence. We chose this area because it’s one of the areas with high and growing abuse related cases in our region,” she said.
“This township is rife with abuse related to women, LGBTQIA and we seeing a growing trend of young boys being abused here. So, we came here to educate them on different kinds of abuses and also share resources in terms of knowing where to go when they need assistance,” she added.
Madimabe said the department raises awareness not only in November, however they do so the whole year.
“As the department we are raising awareness throughout the year and these communities can attest to that as we frequently visit them with our different NGOs,” she said.
Madimabe said they decided to bring on board LGBTQI so that they can share information and know the rights of gays
Tsimologo, Badumetsi Batho, Life Line Vaal, and other NGOs formed part of the entourage that graced the community hall in Mamello.
Project Manager at Badumetsi Batho Center Musa Maleke said “we teach about LGBTI killings, stereotypes among other issues. We joined the programme because there are growing cases of LGBTI in Mamello so they need our services”.
“We are happy on the numbers of people who graced the programme. This means there is interest in these LGBTI communities and topics,” said Musa.
