A MOVEMENT to fight against gender-based violence has been set in motion by interfaith leaders and organisations who met on Tuesday morning at the SA Hindu Maha Sabha (SAHMS) in Durban to formulate a plan of action to combat the scourge that has claimed thousands of lives throughout South Africa.

Coming together ahead of the official start of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children  (16 Days of Activism) campaign, from November 25 to December 10, the group was united in their call for action, saying they are tired of talking and writing letters with no end to the violence that claims a life of woman every 15 minutes in SA.

“Let’s do something now, we are in a path of action. Running this campaign in just 16 day is bizarre to me and we need to act throughout the year,” said Suria Govender from the advice help desk.

The call to act and all-year round awareness of the grave matter was echoed by Pandit Arthi Shanand from the Arya Samaj South Africa, who is also an executive member of the SAHMS. Kicking things off with their Red Chair campaign at the start of the year, school level education on GBV, and the Real Men campaign, she urged all religions and communities to embrace the initiatives aimed bringing an end to GBV and femicide.

Also Read: Women’s Day programme shines spotlight on GBV

“This is an interfaith campaign to end gender-based violence. We need to roll this out throughout SA because GBV is an issue everywhere, we cannot bypass it,” said Shanand. “There has to be justice, there has to be equality and recognition in the value of life, that element of humanity that all of us are forgetting.”

The Red Chair Campaign is a symbolic and practical platform to raise awareness, initiate dialogue, and mobilise united action in addressing the devastating impact of GBV and femicide within our communities.

“As faith leaders we need to be compassionate and bring about awareness by appealing the people by saying let us do something. Government does talk about it but fails to do something about GBV and perpetrators remain in society without lasting consequence. So it is up to us to educate communities. They listen to us as religious and cultural leaders, this is our way of giving back to the community,” said Shanand.

By addressing GBV with schoolchildren Shanand, said, “This could see an end to bullying which is rife in our schools. Children mimic what they see and we need to encourage having a violence-free society by quelling that temperament, bring an end to that streak of violence. It all starts at home,” added Shanand.

The awareness campaigns will start in January and once permission has been granted by the Department of Education, there will be a rollout in schools.

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