I live and work in Marionnridge. In response to the issue of gender-based violence and COVID or particularly during the lockdown. I think it’s important if you live or you work in a community like the one we live and work in to understand that violence has a certain level of the norm.
So, we live already in a really violent society. There is structural violence, and I can think of the violence of drugs in the community, the violence of overcrowded homes, the violence of homelessness, the violence of education system that is not supporting good quality of life.
So generally, the context for us is that on a daily basis woman, in particular, are living already in this violent society, a society where to walk down the road at five o’clock in the morning in the get to work comes with a lot of risk, to get back from work in the afternoon, and walk back to your home comes with a lot of risk. So, when we talk about gender-based violence in our communities, it is almost a desensitized experience.
Also, along with crime, substance abuse, lack of work, people are frustrated, people are dealing already with violence, and are normalizing the violence. So, an angry partner in the house, there’s a justification for why they are angry. “He’s angry because I didn’t do this or didn’t do that on time” or “He’s angry because he’s frustrated that he doesn’t have work.” “He’s angry because we are struggling to survive, and his man-ness is being challenged.” And so, there’s almost an understanding of why it’s okay for the violence to happen.
There’s also an acceptance, particularly from old folk in society, you know the old days of you stick it out, you know, through thick and through thin, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad.
So when women raise issues of violence, there’s also those voices that come out, they are from the elders in the community, they are from religious organizations in the community, they are from those who walk a moral high ground in community, you know, you can’t leave your home, you can’t divorce, you cannot call the police. Let’s deal with this quietly.
And so, violence is not only normalized, but it’s wrapped up, and it’s backed up, and it’s put away.
And so, for us when the lockdown happened, I can think about two particular instances, we saw on our own very doorstep, gender-based violence play out.
And the first one was a young woman who had been in a violent relationship for a long time, but on this particular day, she was hit so badly that the neighbours responded, and it was at a point where neighbours were not responding because there are the consequences for jumping into somebody’s business next door or reporting something. So the neighbours would you would generally just close their doors and they know that somebody is being assaulted, and assaulted quite badly, but they would be quiet. But on this day one neighbour did respond, and she went on to one of our community social groups and she asked for help. And the community responded, so did the police, so did the community policing forum. But of course, the girl was hurt so bad that it created a whole hoo-ha.
And of course, in the context, of what was happening in the country the community responded to the issue of gender-based violence.
As an organization working in the community we mobilized to use the moment, not only to bring awareness about gender-based violence, but we also wanted to, at that moment when the community was highly involved in the issue, to find long term solutions. So, besides mobilizing people into a 2000-person march, we also organized men into groups to become first responders; we issued whistles throughout every door, to say if you hear something blow the whistle, so people can come out.
We also issued stickers for every door – these are the numbers to call if your hear anybody being abused, if you see a child being abused, if you know of an abuse – anonymously call the line; but also if something is happening right now, just stand at your window and blow the whistle and everybody come out and blow the whistle. So those are some of the measures have been put in place around that particular issue during the lockdown.
The lady did survive, and at some point, as a community we grappled with mobilizing around a particular name, because we were conscious of the fact that there’s always a chance of the abused person, reconciling with the abuser. And although the guy was arrested, and he was charged, the lady did at some point, go back into the relationship.
And these are the things that make communities step back, you know, and so we also had to deal on a very public forum with the issue of, we cannot withdraw our support, because people are not doing what we want them to do.
And, and we have to talk to the community about addressing gender-based violence means standing up, irrespective of what’s going to happen after, or irrespective of who is being abused. When we see gender-based violence, we must respond to it immediately with the same energy as whether somebody was terribly beaten, or whether somebody is just being teased or emotionally abused, or whether a child is being spoken to in a way that is not appropriate.
The second incidence I think in our community that came after this very, very highly publicized incident was a gang rape of a young girl who was raped by a group of boys.
And, again, a total crack in the community, of those who are on the side of the boys who were the perpetrators and those who are the side of the young woman who had been gang raped. She was not gang raped by people she didn’t know, it was a group of friends, and it did sound as though they drugged her, and she was, she was violently, violently raped.
And we were able then to firstly, find help for her medical assistant, and then counselling for her and her family.
Eventually, her family left the area because they just couldn’t deal with the fact that the perpetrators were so close in proximity. Of course, the perpetrators were under-age, so they were released into parental custody, and we had to straddle that situation, Mariannridge is a very small community and as a small community, what tends to happen is that people always take sides, and we had to call for even families on the perpetrators in that moment to do the right thing, and to call for justice for this young woman. Of course, a case was opened and the cases ongoing.
In communities like Mariannridge this kind of gender-based violence is prevalent, it’s prevalent all of the time, so during any time of crisis, one can expect that it is exacerbated, but also how community responds to it is always the same – it’s always wrapped up, it’s always made to be not as bad as it is.
And our role is to constantly call for awareness, to call for people to speak up, to call for victims to know that somebody is going to listen, and somebody is going to believe them, irrespective of the circumstances.
And so during the lockdown, we also ran during Women’s month, the month of August, for 30 days, 30 young women, and older women, raising their voices around gender-based violence. We had women who were also victims of violence and who had survived, or left the relationships – we had them share their testimonies, and hopefully all of this work helps us to cultivate, and helps us to develop a society that is less tolerant of gender-based violence, that has less tolerance of abuse towards women and children.
We also do a number of other things: so every Thursday we run the Thursday in Black campaign, where women in the community are invited to wear black as a silent protest against violence against women and children. We also encourage women to wear black and to we wear a doek (traditional African headscarf). A doek being a symbol of standing up, a doek being a symbol of solidarity, a doek being a symbol of power for women. And so, with all of these activities this is what we are trying to do.
We don’t have any Thuthuzela centres (specialised centres to report GBV and receive counselling, healthcare and legal services) in the community of Marionnridge. We do have a primary health care clinic who would be able to, in terms of medical response to assist the victim, but they are not open during the night, they only open during in the day.
We have a victim-friendly centre at the police station as well and at night, they would be our first port of call. We are able to call upon people like the Jessie Ford Foundation to provide counselling for victims (and their families) of rape and abuse.
We’ve just had a recent situation of two young girls, aged around 10 and 11, who had been sexually abused by an a much older person. The family was able to lay charges, an arrest was made. The girls and their family were able to get counselling. So, although we don’t have any direct organizations, responding internally as community-based partners and stakeholders, we try to do our bit, and then we try to also link with all the services that are available to us to support the victims and their families around gender-based violence.
Our nearest hospital is R. K. Khan hospital, and you can get all the services for victims at that hospital. And then, there’s the police, we are also able to have a direct contact with the police through the community policing forum, so that we know when there is any sensitive issues, that the victim is supported, and the victim is given the right attention and care.
But again, all of this is constantly clouded by the fact that violence is normalized in our communities, that we live every day in a violent environment. And so, gender-based violence gets somehow lost in that cloud of ongoing violence. And we work every day to try to break down those barriers, break down those stereotypes, break down those our voices of “Don’t say anything. It’s going to bring shame to the family, it’s going to bring shame to the community. We don’t talk about these things in public.”
I remember when were doing the Women’s Month campaign against gender-based violence, and one woman who had been a victim herself stood up and shared her story, so that other young women could know and learn from it, her in-laws were absolutely angry with her, they were angry with us as an organization, for flighting what they called dirty laundry in public.
So those are some of the things that we have to deal with, even as organizations standing up or encouraging people to stand up and speak out against gender-based violence. There’s always the backlash, there’s always the voices that rather than support women, that shut women down, rather than support young people who have become victims of gang rapes and molestation and abuse, those voices are constantly challenged and asked to be quiet.
So, we have a number of cases, even now, we have a case of a young girl who was gang raped in the park about two weeks ago. The prosecutors and the lawyers were all in the community, and they were in the park, and they were trying to come to some understanding of what transpired on that day, but it’s always much of a challenge to deal with gender-based violence and to deal with it decisively and to find an end it.
We have a large religious community, but again, these issues are not openly spoken about, and people are not invited to be open about such issues. And so, the work is constant, the pushback is constant, and we have to almost be working on these things all the time, building the confidence of one woman, one child at a time, as we deal with the issues of gender-based violence.