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Gender-Based Violence

Newstalk Documentary

Durban Theatre GroupListen to a fascinating radio documentary from Newstalk's Susan Cahill on gender-based violence. As part of the documentary, Susan Cahill visited one of Oxfam's partners - the Durban Theatre Group in South Africa.

Susan Cahill produced this documentary with a grant from the Simon Cumbers Fund. The documentary will be aired on Newstalk in July.

Audio Listen to the documentary

 

Click the link above to open the mp3 in a new window, or right-click to download the file to your computer.

The documentary is about 18 mins long, and has a filesize of 6.7 mb

Oxfam Ireland Partner: KRCC

KRCC is a non-profit organisation with a strong faith based ethos. KRCC currently operates in the rural districts of Uthungulu, Zululand and Umkhanyakude in KwaZulu-Natal . The council is affiliated to a broader provincial and national structure and has a strong influence on the faith based community that constitutes its membership. It aims primarily to increase the involvement of the churches in the community's day to day challenges. KRCC has been a JOHAP partner since 2005.

Working through and with the leaders of their member churches, KRCC focuses on the following:

  • Democracy education to promote increased participation in local government decision making
  • Economic empowerment strategies revolve around advocating for the implementation ad proper management of the government poverty alleviation program.
  • HIV and AIDS work focuses on the active involvement if churches and church leaders to address issues of stigma to encourage support for people living with HIV
  • Gender, masculinity and HIV and AIDS work that is focused on shifting mail dominance and working to build a common response from both men and women to the challenges of HIV and AIDS (JOHAP funded work)

The JOHAP funded work is delivered to rural villages and homesteads surrounding the town of Melmoth. Most villages in the area experience high levels of HIV infection among their communities. High levels of unemployment, poverty, and certain cultural beliefs that promote the spread of the HI virus (multiple partners, polygamy, male dominance, etc) are also prevalent in the area. The community mainly depends on low level subsistence agriculture for survival.

KRCC's gender focused initiative seeks to work with rural people using various strategies to raise awareness on the necessity for gender equality, as well as to initiate processes that will encourage a practical ways of integrating gender equality in all spheres of life. The link between gender, male behaviour, power, sexuality, the spread of HIV and the impact of AIDS are all focus areas for the project, as is the need for developing indigenous alternative ways of improving the position of women in the community.

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