GBV Must Be Put To A Stop

Correspondent | Monday November 25, 2019 15:01

Statistics across the country regarding these acts against humanity continue to rise despite the efforts of various stakeholders to curb them.

Today (Monday) is the start of the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence (GBV) under the theme ‘Orange the world: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape’.

The Monitor caught up with Men and Boys for Gender Equality (M&BGE) team leader, Desmond Lunga for a little insight on how he and his organisation intend to play a role in these festivities for the next 16 days. “We actually started last week at the national soccer team’s match against Algeria at the national stadium by engaging soccer fanatics with anti-rape messages, we were shocked at their compliance to engage with us as they are notorious for aggression and being entirely focused on the game.”

According to Lunga they were willing participants and they managed to engage them on conversations around curbing the pandemic that is GBV.

Another initiative brought forward by M&BGE is to challenge local celebrities and influencers, men and women alike to use their social media platforms to spread the word on the fight against the scourge. Earlier this year M&BGE launched their Monnatia Campaign with the former vice president Ponatshego Kedikilwe where they identified ambassadors of change, who vowed to preach positive messaging regarding how to stop GBV, abuse and rape.

As part of the 16 days of activism and the Monnatia Campaign, a radio drama titled Monnatia will debut tonight on RB2 at 10pm. The show will according to Lunga be the conversation starter around lifestyle choices and instilling positive vibes into the male species, which will hopefully have a significant role in ending GBV. The show will run for the next 16 consecutive days until the end of the campaign.

In Lunga’s view all stakeholders should take advantage of the media space they will be afforded for the next 16 days to spread the word and build a lasting momentum so that the flame does not easily die at the end of it.

“We intend to continue at this pace utilising our offices in Ghanzi and Shakawe to make it a nationwide campaign and hopefully the messages will cascade right down to family levels,” Lunga said.

Just last week a Letlhakane police report indicated that rape, defilement, assualt and murder cases had doubled this year when comparing them to last year. This is a call for the Civil Society Organisations mandated with addressing issues of GBV to invest more in their programmes with the aim of ultimately ending it.