In a bid to bring to zero the rate of social ills, which include sexual and gender-based violence, child abuse, and HIV and AIDS-based stigmas, the Nndwakhulu! (The Big Fight is on!) campaign was launched at Madombidzha village on Monday.
This campaign aims to bring the Madombidzha community into the Zero Tolerance Village Alliance – an intervention conceptualised and developed by the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP), which has proved successful even in refugee villages in Uganda.
The launch took place at the Makhado Christian Church.
Nndwakhulu! is a project funded by the European Union's Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights for South Africa, and is being implemented by the TVEP and their partner, the Tshilwavhusiku Victim Empowerment Programme (TSVEP).
The project offers free rights-based training to community members, traditional leaders, church congregations, civics and schools.
During the launch, TVEP's programme director, Ms Fiona Nicholson said that the programmes had reached a stage where they are not just saying people must not commit abuse, but that they must not even tolerate abuse. "We want to live in abuse-free communities, where all individuals live in peace and harmony," she said. "Where all children live without fear of any violence that can be meted against them."
She explained that through this programme, at least 1 200 community members will benefit from five days of training in the form of dialogues covering sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, HIV, future planning and discrimination against minorities.
The Nndwakhulu! Stakeholder forum's chairperson, Mr George Budzwa, said that they had so far trained a total of 63 men and 569 women, 13 members of the stakeholders, police officers and health professionals.
The European Union's deputy ambassador, Mr Raul de Lefenberger, stated that there was a need to empower people to speak about their abusive experiences. "We don't expect men to only respect women but to protect them as well," he said. "Women would always feel empowered to act out their duties and roles in communities if they are living in a conducive environment."