Pimville GBV fundraiser raises awareness and supports survivors
Sinani Youth Community Center hosted a fundraiser in Soweto where survivors shared their experiences of abuse and attendees donated essential items to organisations supporting gender-based violence survivors.
Sinani Youth Community Center (SYCC) hosted a gender-based violence (GBV) fundraiser at the Pimville Community Centre in Soweto on October 17.
The event aimed to educate the community about the effects of GBV, provide insight into how abuse begins and how to deal with it, and give survivors an opportunity to share their testimonies.
SYCC director Sibongile Nkambule said the organisation was youth-led and aimed to address issues and challenges faced by young people in the community.
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“Today’s session is focused on GBV because we find that most of the youth fall victim to GBV because of situations they find themselves either at home or in society in general. This session is a pivotal one because we have survivors who are much older and have found themselves in similar situations and will somehow be able to show the way by just telling their stories,” she said.
Social justice activist Musa Hlongwa, who attended the event, told the publication that GBV had become a major pandemic and that the issue needed to be discussed until it came to an end.
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“We would really wish that such events would be well funded and mobilised. We should get government to come up and gather people and fund events that speak on such issues such as abuse because it is a national crisis. To the organisers, this is a much-needed session, especially for our communities, where we create safe spaces to touch on such issues,” Hlongwa said.
A GBV survivor who identified herself as the “Queen of Chiskop” shared her experience of being in an abusive relationship. She explained that abuse could begin with an aggravated response, escalate to threats and gradually become physical.
She added that communities needed to come together and encourage survivors and those in abusive relationships to seek help and support.
She concluded by saying that, while addressing the crowd, she noticed many women acknowledging what she was saying, showing that the session was informative and much needed.
Attendees donated essential items, including toiletries, to organisations that work with GBV survivors.
