Page 12 - SCAT GBV Report - Addressing Gender-Based Violence - 2021
P. 12

Significantly, LDAs view GBV as ‘an endemic feature of their local community landscapes’, with women and girls as the overwhelming victims (Karimakwenda et al, 2020:20). In response to this, and as detailed in the SCAT/CLS report, key interventions pursued by these rurally-based organisations are:
• Paralegal services for clients that include setting out legal options; informing them of their rights; helping them to file cases; and accompanying them through key parts of the justice-seeking process.
• Direct support that includes counselling for clients; intervening in situations of violence to rescue women from physical harm; arranging or providing shelter for survivors; transporting clients for the purpose of securing help; and providing food and supplies to women and children.
• Stakeholder networking and referrals to support GBV responsiveness with, amongst others, the police, local schools, the Department of Social Development (DSD), traditional leaders, health care providers, community policing forums, other non-profit organisations, law clinics, and law firms.
• Awareness-raising campaigns on GBV through theatre, support groups, prayer groups, social media messaging, talent shows and youth leadership training, court protests, and publicity around specific cases in the criminal justice system.
Also identified in the SCAT/CLS report, LDAs face the following barriers when implementing gender programmes:
• The patriarchal and conservative views of some LDA staff.
• Underutilisation of LDA services by the community.
• A need for increased knowledge, skills and capacity to respond to GBV. • The complexity of help-seeking journeys of victims.
• Spatial inequalities and limited access to resources.
• Limited financial resources.
• Problems with service delivery by state and non-state actors.
This background has located the present enquiry’s focus and approach, sketched the GBV context, and briefly described the role of LDAs in the rural landscape. The section that follows turns to the strategic routes these organisations chart in working against GBV.
    Phumla Gojela coordinator of CARE Alicedale working on a client’s case.
12
“Finish this Elephant”: Rural Community Organisations’ Strategic Approaches to Addressing GBV



















































































   10   11   12   13   14