Support for GBV victims

The concert is expected to bring together various institutions in society to remember those who have lost their lives due to abuse, crime, drug abuse, suicide and mental health issues. The line-up will include some of the biggest artists in South Africa to raise awareness and emphasise the importance of effectively fighting GBV.

“Citizens will be encouraged to pledge their love and support for women and children. Most importantly, victims and survivors of GBV will share their stories on the day and the foundation, with the assistance of sponsors, will facilitate the process of recovery, counselling and other interventions required by the victims,” said Tsakani Mkhari, founder of Hope Givers Foundation.

The concert will be hosted in conjunction with its partners: the National Lottery Commission, Brand South Africa, Murangi Productions, The President’s Award and AMKA.

Mkhari founded the Hope Givers Foundation in 2014 and it has actively been part of the fight against the scourge of GBV through various initiatives. One such initiative is Raising Legends, which was launched in 2018 and endorsed by Brand South Africa in 2019 for its positive advocacy for a boy child. Raising Legends aims to create a safe space for males between the ages of 11 and 35 to form a brotherhood and a safe space to have conversations of hope through different programmes of education and mentorship.

This is to create awareness on the importance of grooming, supporting and embracing a boy child to build emotionally and intellectually well-rounded youth to become active members, and responsible future leaders of society. “There’s a crisis of increasing GBV in our country, which has become another pandemic that has to be dealt with We strongly believe that to address the issue effectively, one of the ways is to develop and empower a boy child so we can actively balance the gender scale,” said Mkhari.

The initiative is also supported and endorsed by many well-known personalities and dignitaries in the country.

Mkhari added that girls receive more attention as a result of their vulnerability, but the boy child has the same or even worse challenges as a girl child. “Our view is that a boy and girl child should co-exist and receive similar attention and support. There is a social phenomenon where the boy child is neglected and not embraced. Boys are the unsung heroes and they also face challenges, like mental harassment, abuse and rape. Girls have all the social rights but boys have little to no voice. Even their own parents sometimes seldom believe in them,” she said.