VIDEO: Let’s all say a big ‘NO’ to women and children abuse
The annual 16 Days of Activism was launched on November 25 in Eldorado Park.
The annual 16 Days of Activism was launched on November 25 in Eldorado Park. South Africa, with its horrific track record as far as the abuse of women and children are concerned, is fast gaining notoriety in the global community for the abuses the most vulnerable in the country suffer at the hands of men.
The purpose of the week is to create awareness around the violence that thousands of women and children suffer at the hands of men tasked with their protection, on a daily basis.
The campaign starts on November 25 and ends on December every year and World AIDS Day, which is on December 1 and International Human Rights Day which is on the last day of the campaign, are also celebrated during the 16 day period.
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The Khayalethu Care Centre (KCC) founder, Gloria Stewart and the Local Drug Action Committee (LDAC), organised a demonstration in the Main Road to create awareness about the campaign.
A human chain was formed from the corner of the police station with children and residents bearing posters and chanting songs to increase awareness around this all-important issue.
Stewart said, “This year we decided to form a human chain which symbolises that the community will stand together, not just for these 16 days but forever. We are unbreakable if we all stand together. As a community, we are saying ‘NO’ to gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC),” she said.
South Africa adopted the campaign in 1998 as one of the intervention strategies towards creating a society free of violence. Some of the objectives of the campaign include attracting all South Africans to be active participants in the fight against GBV and to ensure mass mobilisation of all communities to promote a collective responsibility in eradicating violence against women and children.
Keith De Costa, who joined the human chain as he was passing, said, “We need to emphasise that the solution lies with all of us. We need to start by respecting and valuing one another. Sometimes the answer does not lie in our justice system, but in us, we need to change ourselves first.”
“Initiatives like these are important, seeing the community come together like this is great, all the cars who drove past us in the Main Road acknowledged us,” he added.
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