Non-profit organisation Zomnotho Community Development held a Mother and Daughter Inter-Generational Dialogue at the Margate Hotel recently.
The programme was held in collaboration with the Department of Social Development.
According to the organisers, the dialogue was aimed at creating a connection between mothers and daughters and initiating a conversation on sensitive issues around sexual and reproductive health.
They added that the dialogue was also aimed at educating mothers and daughters on their various constitutional rights.
Zomnotho Community Development chairperson Nqobile Cele said they also hosted a group of mothers and daughters from the Free State.
She said they wanted this group to share their challenges and hacks with the KZN group.
“Stakeholders and organisations such as the Family And Marriage Society of South Africa shared information about support mechanisms required for mothers and daughters, and the Government Communication and Information Systems department spoke about misinformation, disinformation and how to detect fake news,” said Cele.
She added that a global political movement, She Decides, is driving change in communities by breaking barriers and bringing people together. It emerged in January 2017 to support the rights of girls and women to decide freely and for themselves about their sexual lives.
During the dialogue, issues discussed included mental illnesses, how to fight social ills such as teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence and femicide, sexual reproduction challenges, rape, women trafficking, family planning and food security.
According to the Department of Social Development’s Director of Gender and Women Empowerment, Dr Bongi Owusu, this was a strategy to improve the upbringing of young women by instilling values of life in them that will assist in tackling social ills and challenges.
Owusu said the department will continue to drive such conversations in future.
She added that the initiative will be sustainable and have custodians or patrons who will ensure communication between mothers and daughters and fathers and sons.
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