06/03/2020
YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE-SA UWC BRANCH STATEMENT ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S MONTH
Revolutionary Greetings Comrades and Students
As the Young Communist League-SA UWC Branch, we will be hosting a women's self-defense boot camp tomorrow 7 March 2020 in Belhar. This boot camp is a continuation of an awareness campaign we initiated last year were we challenged all males in our campus and those close to us to buy a pepper spray to donate to students who are women due to the hiked statistics of Gender-Based Violence in our campus community. Although the challenge did not gain a lot of traction at the time, we decided it was a necessary campaign to carry through to this year (2020) because we should not only address Gender-Based Violence when there is an outcry in society but we should be initiating programs and platforms all year round where we address this matter and take action to eradicate all forms of abuse to women and children. Therefore, we have decided that we will be giving special attention to continuous programs were we will be addressing GBV particularly through these boot camps and by establishing a GBV forum where we will collaborate with other stakeholders within our community and create a monthly program where we meet and discuss issues of GBV and giving solutions to those issues.
There are many types of awareness campaigns which have been run to educate men and women about Gender-Based Violence and many of those platforms have focused mainly on discussions. As a result, we have decided that it is time that we also drive awareness campaigns that will empower women with knowledge and skills on how to effectively defend themselves should they ever find themselves in such an unfortunate encounter. It is a shame that we have to take such steps!
It is equally important to note that we are not empowering women to turn violent against men but we seek to live in a society where men do not think they can abuse and have control over a women's body because of their physical strength and ability to intimidate women. We are empowering women with basic skills that can save their lives or which they can use to escape any violent situation presented to them by anyone, particularly men.
This self-defense boot camp will be taking place in two parks around Belhar and the first session starts at 12:00 pm and the second session will start at 13:30 pm. At the end of the boot camp, we will be providing all the attendees with a safety pack which includes a pepper spray, a whistle, and a card which has emergency numbers so the students know which authorities to contact in an emergency.
The details are as follows:
Date: 7 March 2020
Time: 12:00-13:00 & 13:30-14:30
Venue: 39 Lavender Cresent & Verbena Rd
For more information contact us at: [email protected] or send a dm to our page.
Issued by
Ntokozo Mbiza
UWC Branch Secretary
0768731402
Olwethu Bunu
UWC Branch Chairperson
083 379 8412
