Rape Crisis: ordinary women doing extraordinary things

Sub-sections: The Gender Based Violence Indicators Project | Mapping violence prevention models

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Written by Catherine Hayden | 06 August 09

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Earlier this year, Rape Crisis launched a new campaign booklet in Cape Town. Stop the Bus! I Want to Get on contains lessons learnt in successful campaigning by Rape Crisis, the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (Gender Centre) in Ghana, and the Musasa Project in Zimbabwe. Margie Orford, acclaimed Cape Town writer and patron of Rape Crisis, spoke at the launch of Stop the Bus! “What we’ve discovered is that ordinary women can do extraordinary things, and this is the story that this booklet shares.”

Rape Crisis was founded in 1976, and is the oldest organisation in South Africa focusing on the issue of violence against women. Rape Crisis has set up specialised sexual offences courts, arranged victim support centres at police stations, and successfully lobbied for changes in sexual offences legislation (the amended Sexual Offences Act was approved in 2007) in South Africa. Still, only 7% of reported rapes are expected to lead to conviction.

Rape Crisis’s role in assisting rape survivors with their healing is vital. The Sexual Offences Act makes no provision for the psycho-social care of survivors, according to Kathleen Dey, Director of Rape Crisis, “and that’s why Rape Crisis is here: to provide a bridge between the rape survivor and the system.” Rape Crisis offers survivors of sexual assault the emotional support the criminal justice system does not offer them.

Campaigning is important, according to Orford, because it initiates a “pulse of hope and faith” in survivors. Stop the Bus! describes three successful campaigns, what their organisers learnt from them, and most importantly, how they brought about increased awareness of vital issues in local communities.

In Ghana, the Gender Centre’s “Stop Violence against Women, Break the Silence” campaign saw activists traveling to rural communities to raise awareness of domestic violence. One of its measures of success was the positive response from people who attended their seminars. An older woman from a community the Gender Centre visited said, “In our day, nobody bothered to come and teach us about our rights.”

Zimbabwe’s Musasa Project managed to reach 5 000 people in the suburbs of Harare with their campaign to raise awareness of Zimbabwe’s Domestic Violence Act in 2007. Their “one-stop-shop” was the main event, offering legal advice, information on family planning and counselling to women who had suffered abuse.

In 2006, Rape Crisis’ first Stop the Bus campaign saw volunteers visiting rural communities in the Western Cape, which lack access to resources, and where debate around violence against women does not commonly take place. The organisation was asked to return and hold more workshops, and the campaign is expected to run annually until 2010.

A new fundraising initiative by Rape Crisis seeks to ensure that they can continue spreading hope to women and men in South Africa. Funding has become one of the greatest issues faced by the organisation, with two core supporters ending their relationship with Rape Crisis in the past two years.

The 1 000 Hearts campaign offers members of the public the opportunity to “buy” a heart on the Rape Crisis website. The heart symbolises “what is beautiful about sex, what is beautiful about love, and what is beautiful about relationships between people,” says Dey.

At Rape Crisis, Dey asserts, “We’re just a bunch of ordinary women doing stuff together.” She says that every woman, by realising that sexual violence is a reality, by thinking about her everyday relationships, and learning the principles of empowerment, can make a difference.”

Stop the bus! is available directly from Rape Crisis. Contact Kathleen Dey at kath@rapecrisis.org.za. Visit www.rapecrisis.org.za to support the foundation by buying a heart.

Catherine Hayden writes from Cape Town. This article is part of the GL Opinion and Commentary Service that offers fresh views on every day news.

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