NETWORKS FOR CHANGE AND WELL-BEING Girl-led ‘From the Ground Up’ Policy Making to Address Sexual Violence in Canada and South Africa
Dear Partners, Colleagues and Friends of Networks4Change At a time when so much has been cancelled or postponed, and when the word ‘unprecedented’ has become everyday vocabulary to refer to lockdowns, social isolation, physical isolation, school closures, and economic hardships, it is has been difficult to reflect forward in a productive way on ‘what next’ in our project that works with Indigenous girls and young women to address sexual violence. This is especially so since so many of those most affected by lockdowns during Covid-19 are also the same girls and women who are experiencing higher rates of violence.
Issue 11: September 2020
In South Africa the pandemic has both highlighted and exacerbated existing inequalities that drive gender-based violence (GBV) such as poverty and access to services and resources. Specifically, while the impact of COVID-19 on GBV is not yet clear, research by scholars at the Medical Research Council (MRC) suggests that data from various NGOs working with survivors/victims of GBV have reported increased rates of intimate partner violence, including sexual violence and femicide since the beginning of national lockdown in March. Media reports have been awash with cases of femicide and GBV, particularly against girls and women. These include reports of more than 120 000 (double the normal call volume) to the national helpline for abused women and children in the first three weeks of lockdown. For Indigenous communities in Canada we are similarly seeing the ways in which existing inequalities have been exacerbated, and especially in relation to such issues as overcrowding, access to places to isolate, and weak infrastructures to support online communication.
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More Than Words Mentoring Webinar
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Fieldsite Reports
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Networks Events
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Publications
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Special Thanks to Summer Interns
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Partners & Stakeholders
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While this issue of the newsletter offers no ‘silver linings’ of COVID-19, much of the coverage from the different sites demonstrates, we think, the ways that site leaders, girls and young women, and researchers have been creative in adapting to make things happen. A face-to-face conference on mentoring and Indigenous girls becomes a webinar in a move to keep the discussions going. The years of experimenting with cellphilms across several sites provides the opportunity to return to the roots of cellphilming, contributing to an international cellphilm festival on ‘well-being in the time of distancing’ which springs up. Girls at one site use their devices to share through social media their guidelines for keeping their community safe in the time of COVID-19. And on the eve of South African national lockdown in early March, the Inkosi of the Amangwe Nation in Loskop signed an historic response protocol for addressing early and forced marriages. As an example of a girl-led, ‘from the ground-up policy making’ initiative, the research team at the University of KwaZulu-Natal developed the protocol with the Social Ills Fighters of Loskop, with support and endorsement from the Commission on Gender Equality, the National Prosecuting Authority, and the Office of the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal. All of this took place just in the last six months. We hope this issue of the newsletter informs but also inspires. Warm regards, Claudia and Lebo
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