The wheels of the bus go… back to Worcester

Its three months later, the beginning of autumn, and the Rape Crisis team is on their way to Worcester to follow up on the 2012 Stop the Bus campaign to see what has changed for the farm workers and their families and to find out if those we spoke to got the support they needed.

Our annual Stop the Bus Campaign takes place to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women between 25 November and 10 December and last year we visited the small rural communities of Brandwacht, Zwelemteba, Slanghoek, Witels, and Rawsonville in the Western Cape. The bus crew spent two weeks going door-to-door to share information and inviting community members to attend workshops and networking meetings.

Friday, 22 March 2013

At 6am we embarked upon our journey. First we revisited the Saartjie Baartman Women’s Shelter in Brandwacht. Four of the women we met at the shelter in December had gone home with hopes of beginning new lives. We hosted a workshop and everyone spoke about the abuse they had endured and how they came to find themselves in this shelter. One woman also showed pictures to testify to her trauma and the injuries she had suffered at the hands of her abusive partner. She is now working in her community, speaking to other woman about domestic violence and rape after leaving the shelter. The women felt safe to share their stories and afterwards, candles were lit to acknowledge their pain and to symbolize the day’s message of hope.

The next stop was Zwelemteba, a township just outside Worcester, where we revisited Zwakala Youth in Christ, a youth group that teaches life skills and educates other youth in the community through drama and talks. The group welcomed us with a song entitled “Mercy Rewrote my Life”. In the workshop the group discussed their ideas about rape in their community and had reflected on the information they had received in December. Afterwards a few survivors told us about their struggles for closure and feelings that the justice system had failed them. They also spoke about how family members are sometimes not supportive and can add to the difficulty of healing after rape. One of our counsellors listened respectfully and acknowledged their sadness.

After a very long day we made our way to our accommodation and held our group debriefing session.

Saturday, 23 March 2013

Its grape season and today we returned to three farms in Slanghoek.

The first farm we visited was Witels. We were invited into a house, occupied by two young couples and their friends. They were reluctant to admit that domestic violence and rape is happening on this farm although they did tell us about a 19 year old woman who was raped on a nearby farm. They had also received good news of a wage increase due to the recent labour strikes. We continued knocking door to door and were welcomed into homes where we gave the locals important information about what to do if someone has been raped, how to report to the police and how to follow other criminal justice system processes and procedures. A school girl and a youth leader asked for information resources to take with to their school and church.

The next farm was the tranquil Ruigers Vlei, home to the survivor they had heard about at Witels. The whole community was saddened by the horrific attack that had happened right under their noses. The woman’s family was concerned about her recovery and asked us to speak to her. She said that she was fearful even though the perpetrator had been taken into custody. A counsellor listened to her, gave her information about healing and the court process and encouraged her to maintain her follow-up appointments at the hospital.

Finally we entered Da Nova, an informal settlement in Rawsonville. The bus made a quick stop in the town and we took the opportunity to hand out pamphlets and create awareness around rape. We had heard that when women are raped here they seldom receive proper care and treatment. We met a survivor, a young mother, who was raped in primary school and as a result could not finish school. This community has high levels of unemployment and poverty, and domestic violence, alcohol abuse and rape is on the rise. A group of young girls said that they felt there was nothing for them in this informal settlement. We left informational resources and facilitated a referral to a women’s shelter.

We ended the day with a session of debriefing and we reflected on what we had encountered in these communities and the major challenges they encounter daily. There is certainly much work to be done.

Our special thanks to the Western Cape Department of Social Development for making this campaign possible.

 

The birds and the bees…and things that make you go weak at the knees…

On Human Rights Day 21 March 2013, 19 peer educators from KwaMfundo Senior Secondary School and Iqhayiya Senior Secondary School in Khayelitsha set off for the Manyano Centre situated in the picturesque town of Paarl for the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust’s annual Birds and the Bees Youth Camp. This camp was the finale to the peer education programme activities for the year and gives peer educators an opportunity to explore the issues they have worked with during the year in a more intensive, in depth way and informs Rape Crisis in the development of its model for prevention work with youth. Our expert team of facilitators went with them.

The Rape Crisis peer education programme identifies schools that are at a high risk for sexual bullying and where there are a high number of rape survivors among the learners.  A group of 20 – 25 learners from grades 10 – 11 are recruited to take part in a thirteen week training course which equips them to act as a resource to rape survivors in their schools. They also organise poster campaigns on commemorative days and arrange various activities that highlight the issue of sexual bullying in schools.

There was much excitement and anticipation on the way to the camp as the group chanted lively songs and kept asking how close they were to arriving. The group gathered at the start of a challenging climb in the Paarl Mountain Reserve. Each peer educator was paired with a friend whom they would motivate and encourage throughout the climb.

During the ascent some felt their strength dwindling and felt like giving up but at the resting points their partners cheered them on with song and words of support. On the peak of the mountain they took a few moments to admire the breathtaking views of Paarl and reflected on how their experience of climbing the mountain mirrored some of the challenges they face in their lives:

“Life is sometimes like a mountain, it is hard going up. We are faced with many challenges in our communities like gangsterism and rape. Just like we had our partners to support us on the climb, it is important for us to support people in our communities who have experienced rape and other types of violence when they feel like giving up.”

After their descent the group participated in a few team games including navigating a rope ‘spider web’ and an obstacle course. Afterwards they reflected on the importance of teamwork and decided that it comprised the following ingredients: listening skills, perseverance, encouraging participation from everyone and looking for creative solutions. They discussed how these ingredients are also essential if youth are to work together to combat rape.

Peer educators partook in an awareness programme in one of the township areas in Paarl, organised by Community Action towards A Safer Environment (CASE). They played soccer against 13 other teams from around the local community, Somerset West and Wellington and afterwards signed pledges against gender violence alongside the others.

The group also participated in discussion groups where they talked about the importance of equality and respect in relationships, confronted some of the myths about rape and how difficult it can be for women who are financially dependent on an abusive partner to report sexual abuse and claim their constitutional right to safety.

The group consolidated their learning and experiences by writing their own stories about their journey within the Rape Crisis peer education programme. They reflected on how their beliefs and ideas about rape had changed and on the valuable knowledge and skills they had learned that now enable them to support the survivors they encounter and serve as ambassadors in their schools in the fight against sexual bullying and rape.

Thanks to our Rape Crisis team, Kholeka Brenda Booi, Joyce Doni-Mxego, Noluthando Mvilili, Nosicelo Mfumbe, Nomthandazo Tshingo for all their inspiring work with this group and  Nomnqweno Nomxhego and Ewart Mouton for documenting the journey.

This project was made possible by the Western Cape Department of Social Development, and Oxfam.

Rape in South Africa is a much bigger problem than we think

Kathleen Dey, Director of Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, displays this article, published as a supplement in The Cape Argus on 28 March 2013

Rape in South Africa is a much bigger problem that any commentator on the rape, mutilation and murder of Anene Booysen and the subsequent public outcry has begun to outline. In South Africa our Constitution enshrines the right of women to live free from violence. Our government has also signed a number of regional and international conventions agreeing to uphold these same rights and duties. It is time for the state to call for international assistance.

 Police crime statistics released in September 2012 state that in 2011/2012 there were a total of 9 193 sexual offences reported to the South African Police Services (SAPS) in the Western Cape. This translates into just under 27 cases per day. In total, 64 514 sexual offences were reported countrywide for that period.

At Rape Crisis we know that the prevalence of rape is much greater than those cases that are reported to the South Africa Police Service (SAPS). This fact is backed up by scientific studies conducted by the South African Medical Research Council (MRC). The barriers to reporting rape are many. For the survivor of rape these barriers include the horror of being forced to relive the trauma of the rape every time she speaks about it, the shame of what other people will think, how they will judge her behaviour before they judge the behaviour of the rapist, the pain it will cause her mother, her father, her friends, her husband or girlfriend or lover, the fact that the rapist and his friends or family or gang will offer her threats or bribes to drop the case and, perhaps the reason closest to our vision as an organisation, the fact that she has little faith in the South African criminal justice system to support her in seeing that justice is done. Perhaps if this system recognised their rights more fully then more rape survivors would report or disclose these attacks.

However it is not only the prevalence of rape that is of such deep concern, frightening as it is. At Rape Crisis we know that the foreseeable consequences of rape can be a matter of life and death. Rapes in the Western Cape in particular but also elsewhere must be considered against the background of poverty, easy access to drugs like tik (methamphetamine) and of widespread HIV infection. Violence against women acts as a vector or as a driving force for HIV transmission because rapists and the act of rape itself carry several inherent risk factors.  Perpetrators of rape often carry other sexually transmitted infections, cause injuries to the genital organs during the act and often rape repeatedly or in a group with more than one rapist. The use of tik and alcohol greatly increase the violence of rape and hence the risk of transmission. We have seen women with human bite wounds. Unwanted pregnancy as a result of rape leads to survivors seeking terminations of pregnancy or living with a child that is a constant reminder of pain. And poverty can make people believe that their lives have no meaning and no value to others. The combination of all these factors has lead to a situation that as it escalates over the years, is, in my opinion, quite lethal.

The resources we have to hand to tackle this problem are dwindling fast. With the classification of South Africa as a middle income country international donors are offering much needed support to poorer African countries or indeed responding to social problems of their own. Government has not adequately gauged the extent violence against women and therefore has not allocated funds adequate to the task of delivering services at the scale that is required. 

Local corporate social investment does not increase year on year and these donations are tied to the performance of the economy and need to be shared between an increasing pool of beneficiaries.  Businesses have not yet seen how they can expand their consumer base by aligning themselves with a good cause. Individual citizens are only just beginning to realise their power to use their votes to support decision makers that are committed to constructive solutions.  They are only just beginning to realise that they have the choice to spend their money on a good cause and that in doing so they will make a real difference.

And what is that difference? What is it exactly that those organisations like Rape Crisis do? What is it that makes what we do so remarkable?

Rape Crisis was founded on the idea that ordinary women can do extraordinary things. Our founder, Anne Mayne, was an ordinary South African woman who was raped in the 1970s and found that she had nowhere to turn for help. She did not want to see other women suffer the same fate and so she recruited some volunteers to assist her. They met at one another’s homes to plan the work of Rape Crisis. They soon got themselves a pager and a telephone number. The telephone has not stopped ringing since. They offered counselling and support to rape victims in coffee shops, on the back seats of cars and on park benches before they had a small rented office. They spoke at meetings of civic associations, citizen groups, at churches and at schools. They wrote letters to the press exposing the inadequacies of the criminal justice system and of the law.

Rape Crisis 36 years later is the oldest women’s organisation in South Africa offering essential services to both female and male rape survivors. We recruit our staff and volunteers from the very same communities we serve – the community of ordinary South Africans in everyday life in all its diversity from housewives in Constantia to domestic workers in Khayelitsha to factory workers in Athlone to university students to unemployed women to professionals – we are all represented. During the struggle to end Apartheid we were a safe house and trained some of the most powerful gender activists in the field today. More recently we began to recruit women who speak Swahili, Lingala and French in order to better support the growing number of rape survivors from outside South Africa coming to our doors.

We counsel now in more comfortable surroundings in one of our three offices and the telephone helpline still operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 day a year. We also counsel rape survivors at two health facilities and five Cape Town courts and we train police victim support volunteers to counsel survivors when they come to police stations throughout the Western Cape to report rape.

We speak at civil society gatherings, at schools, at universities and at churches but now we do this in Cape Town and in towns throughout the Western Cape.  We speak on the radio, we appear on television and we write articles for the press. We support our partners in national initiatives such as the Shukumisa Campaign. We run courses for our sister NGOs and train officials within the criminal justice system. We make submissions to Parliament advocating for law reform and for better implementation of our laws. There is no sense for us in seeing the individual rape survivor triumph over her anguish only to see the same thing happen again and again without making any attempt to change the system or build stronger communities.

As build them we do.  Our staff and volunteers are well trained in highly specialised skill sets as counsellors, court supporters and community educators. Not only that, they know how to convene meetings, chair meetings, take minutes, keep records, set up filing systems and gather research data. They know how to lead. In fact they are the future leaders of this country. Supporting them is the best thing you, as an ordinary South African can do.

In the weeks since those men raped and killed Anene Booysen we have seen ordinary South Africans do so much. We can all follow their example.  Join a campaign. Participate in a meaningful action. Join an organisation and train as a volunteer. Tweet #StopRape into trending every week and follow @RapeCrisis and like the RC Cape Town Facebook page or contact the organisation closest to you that you find on www.shukumisa.org.za to find out more about what you can do to assist them.

Look for the party in the upcoming election that supports law reforms that will benefit victims of crime and that will ensure steps to build a criminal justice system that sees the strength in the rape survivor and builds on that strength. Look for the party that has a true political champion that will drive these reforms over the long term. Vote for that party rather than any other.

Support champions like Gasant Abarder amd Margie Orford when they ride a race or write a book that highlights the problems we all face together and looks for the best solutions. Support a business that supports organisations like Rape Crisis rather than one that doesn’t. Donate and become part of something you can feel proud of. Support a call on the South Africa government to invite the United Nations to make a country visit to South Africa to investigate the problem. Perhaps when we have the scrutiny and support of the international community we will gather the resources do what needs to be done.

Contact Rape Crisis for counselling or other services on (021) 447-1467 or visit www.rapecrisis.org.za to find out how you can become more involved.

A word from Lizzy…

Lizzy Cowan, a counselling volunteer at the Rape Crisis office in Observatory.

We are giving our Rape Crisis website a makeover and I am happy to announce that the new ‘Counselling’ content was launched today. 

Writing the new content has made me reflect on my own time counselling at Rape Crisis. Quite simply, it has been a wonderfully rewarding experience!

I have always strongly rejected the high levels of rape and violence against women in South Africa and believe that most women in this country remain damagingly disempowered. I grew up in an exceptionally patriarchal family and was at loggerheads with my father ever since I was a teenager old enough to realise that the women in our household were seriously undermined – especially my most beloved Mum. So when, driving home one day, I heard our most able director, Kath, on Cape Talk recruiting new volunteer counsellors for training, my attention was immediately caught.

I phoned Rape Crisis as soon as I got home to ask how I could apply to volunteer and here I am six years later, enriched by being part of this wonderful organisation. The training course that set me off as a counsellor taught me invaluable skills that have been of benefit to me in all spheres of my life. The staff I work with are truly wonderful women, selflessly dedicated to helping other women.

The Counselling Coordinators of Rape Crisis’s three offices, Joyce Doni (Khayelitsha), Shiralee McDonald (Observatory) and Barbara Williams (Athlone).

I have met the most amazing women during counselling sessions, women who have bowled me over with their dignity, bravery and strength: women who move forward with their lives despite extremely difficult circumstances. In sessions, I sometimes sit with indescribable pain and am truly humbled and saddened, but I know that Rape Crisis has given me the skills to ably assist each and every client along her path to recovery and this carries me forward, for our respectful counselling approach where we empower our survivors to regain control in their lives within a safe, empathic environment, is a worthy and enduring one.   

Our organisation has been through stressful financial times recently and although we are not yet in safe waters, we are hopefully going to get there. Rejuvenating and updating our website is an important part of this process, of remaining relevant and current and I am happy to be part of it. 

Click here to read this new content about Rape Crisis’s counselling services.