Gender-Based Violence Plan to Sustain Survivors

Siyakholwa’s commitment to women.

Siyakholwa has long been committed to empowering women since 2010; Siyakholwa rolled out a few programmes to support Gender-Based Violence victims, including a domestic violence policy to support them. Within marginalised communities, we are committed to fighting GBV as part of the Gender Empowerment Programme that started back in 2010.

The Gender Empowerment Programme operates within both local and other African continents, including UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, which focuses on gender equality.

Support to women who experience Gender-Based Violence.

Providing support to women who experience GBV was a primary concern when we partnered with the churches to use their venues as skills training centres in 2013 to set up the Gender-Based Violence Mobile Command Centre (GBVCMC) for women experiencing violence and abuse. Siyakholwa provided the Agritech business startup resources for the GBVCC.

The GBVCMC is part of a multi-pronged strategy to eradicate violence against women and focuses on prevention, response, and support for survivors.

Gender-Based Violence Mobile Command Centre.

Our GBVCMC sites within the DSD portfolio function as a helpline for everyone from matric students anxious about their results to at-risk women seeking information about GBV. It is an important tool that supports vulnerable women and collects valuable information about GBV across the country – for example.

Social workers know which provinces receive the most calls and which types of abuse are most frequently reported. In this way, it is possible to assess trends, helping other civil societies to tailor their interventions accordingly.

Siyakholwa has helped to train more than 1 400 GBV survivors with basic AGriculture skills. In this way, survivors have gained skills they can use to become financially independent and are thus less likely to return home to an abusive spouse or partner.