Page 34 - SCAT GBV Report - Addressing Gender-Based Violence - 2021

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“Finish this Elephant”: Rural Community Organisations’ Strategic Approaches to Addressing GBV
As part of their conflict resolution and educative roles, some LDAs take direct action in dealing with men’s conduct and violence.
We also spoke to men about their responsibilities. It’s not the women’s job to cook alone. It’s not the women’s job to take care of the children. So, we have to imprint some of these. It’s new to them also. I realised that some of these things take time, they grew up like that in their homes, their father was like that, they grow up that ‘to be a man, you need to be like this’. It also needs patience to teach them otherwise.
Wendy Pekeur, Ubuntu.
We also talk to men about the importance of not doing domestic violence ... We talk to them about how to manage their anger, and that they should understand how that anger came and what was happening when they were young.
Kefuwe Mabote, MFAO.
The SCAT/CLS research reported that ‘deeper discussion revealed a much less settled picture, showing that the LDAs understandings relied in some cases on problematic patriarchal views’ (Karimakwenda et al, 2020:7). Consequently, taking action against GBV also requires organisations to critically question their own gendered identity and practice.
3.4
We have a history from where we come from, and we have a masculinity approach in everything that we have done. We have learned from our organisation, and we have to grow out of the masculinity effect. This is also a great growing pain for our organisation in terms of giving women the forefront, and the resources and tools to empower themselves. That is very important going forward.
Jonathan van der Westhuizen, SALDA.
Inadequate and insecure resourcing: “You want
to make a change but you don’t have the resources”
In rural locales there is a structural scarcity of essential services to protect against and respond to violence. Moreover, the CAO sector as a whole faces significant resource constraints (Davids, Marco & Dipholo, 2014). In the communities where LDAs operate, access to the police, clinics and social workers is severely limited (SCAT, 2019), and this places a heavy reliance on LDAs, ‘who must step into the breach to assist survivors and implement community interventions, despite their own extremely limited funds’ (Karimakwenda et al, 2020:37).
A lot of these people are working with their own resources. It’s horrible to see how exploitative that situation is.
Lesley Ann Foster, key informant.