Drakenstein municipality joins national GBVF campaign

The End gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) team within the Drakenstein area are utilising their resources and skills to increase the number of youths that participate in sports and recreational activities, with the purpose of reducing GBV incidences by 500 youth members in 100 days.

This effort is a part of a wider national campaign, known as the End GBVF 100-Day Challenges, where multisectoral teams across South Africa take on ambitious challenges to end GBVF in their communities.

“Sports and recreational activities provide a platform for young people to engage positively with each other while reducing idle time that could lead to harmful behaviours that perpetuate violence, especially GBVF.

“When engaging in a team sport, they foster respect, teamwork, and equality, which are key social values that counteract GBV attitudes,” says Gerald Esau, Executive Director Community Services at Drakenstein Municipality and ambassador for the End GBVF 100-Day Challenges campaign.

During September and October, a number of sport and recreational days took place in the Drakenstein area. Activities included 7’s rugby, netball, and T10 cricket. So far a total of 350 youth have participated in the programme.

“By promoting healthy relationships and communication, we can discourage violence and discrimination. This is our motivation for focusing on sports and recreation for this campaign.”

Taking a holistic approach to increase their GBV prevention and response efforts, the Drakenstein team also aims to increase assistance to GBV victims in completing applications of domestic violence protection orders.

“We are taking a very close look at our current channels and resources to identify ways in which we can make it easier for victims to acquire a protection order. We are meeting with the relevant officers at the Magistrate Court to get their buy-in and to discuss how the courts can manage an increase in domestic violence protection orders,” Mr Esau says.

This wave of End GBVF 100-Day Challenges started on Women’s Day and are set to run until the “16 Days of Activism against GBV”, giving all teams an opportunity to dive deeper into ending GBVF over this commemorative period.

Follow these developments on the End GBVF 100-Day Challenges on their social media pages on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.