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Let’s fight this monster

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OVER the last few weeks, the world came together to fight the monster of gender-based violence. The campaign ran from November 25 to December 10.

The campaign was started by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991 with the goal of embedding women’s rights within the international human rights framework utilising intersectional advocacy.

As I was writing this article I called to mind one track by a duo named Lefate – “Stop woman abuse”.

This song remains my favourite up to this day. It is the first song that comes to my mind when I hear stories of abused women.

Anyway, global assessments show that on average, more than five women are killed every hour as a direct result of gender-based violence.

Despite the moment of urgency to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls that was created by several women rights activists, the figure of women affected by this monster has remained largely unchanged.

So much as it is believed that investing in women’s rights organisations might help in ending gender-based violence, I believe the one most thing that can help the world in this fight is to strengthen laws and policies and essential prevention strategies thereby tightening all loose screws on every corner to help in any case of GBV.

Once upon a time when I still had a lot of time on my hands to come up with ideas, I thought of how I could offer a hand and help in the fight against gender-based violence and I came up with an idea to start a non-profit generating organisation.

But mine would be a different breed of organisation as instead of focusing on victims of this monster (GBV) it would concentrate mostly on the agents of GBV because in most cases those people too were once victims of GBV, either they experienced this first hand or they witnessed it at a tender age and a seed then was planted in them.

This came after the US National Statistics showed that there were more animal shelters than there were shelters for victims of domestic violence.

The world really tried to accommodate victims of GBV but women mostly so I would focus on creating a home for the agents instead.

I contacted a Psychologist acquaintance of mine and I presented my idea.

So together we would work on rehabilitating and housing the guilty party.

We would work on promoting and strengthening the spirit of unity by engaging communities in the organisation’s daily activities related to GBV and offering life skills training programmes.

We would alleviate some commonly practiced norms, traditions and misconceptions such as “mosali o ngalla motšeo”, “thupa e otlolloa e sa le metsi” and others.

To find the root of the behaviour of the agents of gender-based violence we would start first by identifying the problem by asking questions like “how was it like growing up”.

Our objective would be to help reduce GBV statistics in the country and globally and besides the housing arrangement we would host seminars, hand out questionnaires that would help us identify a problem before it manifests into something big, approach communities and conduct one on one sessions with women as they are in most cases the victims.

Now with roadblocks like the backlash against women’s rights organisations and activists who in some states face repression and impunity we would be on the safe side because we would target the very same leaders of these anti-movements while the women’s rights organisations would work determinedly to end violence against women and girls.

But as research shows, women’s rights organisations and feminist movements remain severely underfunded despite the increased momentum and evidence of need so I still wonder if my (our) idea would have received funding.

If as a country we really want to end violence against women and girls then I guess it is high time we supported and invested in these organisations and movements not just financially but lending a hand and donating resources can be very helpful too to empower survivors and reduce violence against women and girls.

Gender Based Violence is a human rights issue and it should be treated as such but preventing and responding to it is core to any humanitarian response.

As this years’ theme pleaded with the world to unite in the fight against gender based violence, everyone is encouraged to share information on social media, organise and attend events and other activities that elevate the voices of those impacted by GBV but most of all report any incident of GBV no matter how close to home the matter is.

If we all adhere to these messages I strongly believe we can see the light of the day and we shall be able to prevent more cases of GBV.

You do not have to be a psychologist to help people find solutions to their problems.

When you identify a victim of GBV, before anything else please find the root of the problem and address it.

Learn not to judge but look at things from their perspective to emphasise with them.

The same thing goes with trying to help a perpetrator.

Choose your words carefully when you address them and create a comfortable space for them to voice out their issues.

Let us all hold hands and fight this monster that is on a mission to destroy the world.

Bokang Masasa

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