Page 22 - SCAT GBV Report - Addressing Gender-Based Violence - 2021

If we come up with a case, we go there and have an interview and intervene there. And if we see the case is more serious, we get in the social workers, we get in the police, and if the social workers cannot help immediately and the police are doing nothing at that point, we try to get that person in a safe house so they can be safe for the interim ... We have to try to protect the women’s safety, to get her out of that environment.
Jenny Fredericks, Ubuntu.
With GBV, still a lot of people are afraid to come out to report cases. So, the case reporting is very low, but they know where to go when they need access. But, for us to report the case and then they don’t get a place of shelter, means you need to go back to the same circumstances and it’s going to get more worse.
Mary Boer, DOH stakeholder.
In addition to an emphasis on access to support, LDAs are also concerned with building solidarity for those individuals who take up legal cases against their perpetrators. Solidarity-building includes leading or participating in marches and other forms of protest, linked either to a specific case, or to a wider campaign against GBV or related social issues. When building solidarity, the survivor experience is foregrounded and community members are mobilised to show public support. Individual cases of GBV are also focal points around which LDAs can build advocacy efforts that are directed at systemic issues. In this way, individual GBV cases are situated within a wider set of social, political and economic conditions, and attention is drawn of government and community leaders to exacerbating contextual factors (see more on system failures on 31). Through their advocacy, LDAs intend to support and/or initiate community attention and action against GBV.
On the advocacy part, we want to influence the policy, because there is a stigmatisation about these things in our community. People don’t want to talk about it, so that’s why if we can change those things with our advocacy work, and then the police know what they are doing, and every partner in this environment is working together, that will be great for us in terms of achievement.
Jonathan, SALDA.
LDA advocacy is wide in scope, including a focus on access to land and housing. In some instances, it is linked into national campaigns, such as #HandsOffOurGrants and #BillionRising,17 bringing rural voices into the national discourse on numerous social justice issues. LDAs also advocate directly for improvements in the policies and practices of state institutions. This ranges from making submissions on draft legislation, to using the media to expose poor service delivery, corruption, and the barriers GBV survivors encounter when seeking legal redress through the criminal justice system. In harnessing support and solidarity around GBV, LDAs express a commitment to providing inclusive and accessible services (see more on 33 about LGBTIQ inclusion).
Through their support and solidarity work, these rural organisations are critical conduits for women and other GBV survivors to access a variety of state and other services, and to hold key role-players to account. This can, in turn, strengthen their resolve to persist in the justice-seeking process. The coordinators, fieldworkers and volunteers who staff LDAs require high levels of resilience, as they often work tirelessly against the odds. Moreover, many are themselves GBV survivors (Karimakwenda et al, 2020), and for some this painful history is what drives their support for others.
17. The ‘Hands Off Our Grants’ campaign was initiated by the Black Sash in response to large-scale unauthorised debit deductions from beneficiaries’ social grant accounts. ‘One Billion Rising’ is a global campaign to end rape and sexual violence against women.
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“Finish this Elephant”: Rural Community Organisations’ Strategic Approaches to Addressing GBV