Gender-based violence has sky-rocketed in the past few years and two organisations want to shine the spotlight on relevant education in a special debate on the topic.
The event will take place at the Green Meadows Lifestyle Centre on Thursday, 10 June with YouBeforeMe! and The Immaculate Agate Stone Organization taking hands in arranging it. The debate evening promises to lift the lid on various social issues of gender-based violence and its impact on society.
Atang Swartbooi, the founder of YoubeforeMe! and a current LLB student at the NWU, and Tshiamo Molotsane (founder of The Immaculate Agate Stone Organization and gender-based violence survivor and activist) were two key initiators of this event.
“I started an initiative called #YoubeforeMe! to inform young men about gender issues and how we can contribute to eradicating them. I started it because of my gender violence experiences and my female friends living in fear because of the increase in the number of women being abused and murdered.”
“I have come to realise that education is the key to ending this issue. We set up a WhatsApp group of 50 young men and discussed the causes and consequences of gender-based violence. “We find solutions to these problems. This event will help educate people on issues surrounding gender violence and women murder,” explains Swartbooi.
He says 50 people will be admitted due to Covid-19 restrictions on the venue, but the event will be broadcast live on YouTube for those who cannot attend. The event starts at 19:00.
This is one of a list of speaker events that the YouBeforeMe! project has initiated this year. Previous speakers were Nico Prinsloo (former Mr NWU 2019/2020); Matthew Smith (Mr NWU 2020/2021); Kgothatso Sefike (Ms South Africa Campus 2020/2021); Tshiamo Molotsane (gender violence survivor and founder of The Immaculate Agate Stone Organization); Maxwell Sabisa (student leader at North-West University) and Saki Tlotleng (founder of Banna ba Kae).
