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The director of community engagement at Univen, Prof Vhonani Netshandama.

Univen holds second annual LGBTI+Q Symposium

 

The director of community engagement at the University of Venda, Prof Vhonani Netshandama, believes that traditional leaders and healers, pastors and the community can help the university in curbing the discrimination of students against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTI+Q) community.

She was one of the organizers of the second Univen LGBTI+Q symposium earlier this week. She was speaking on Monday, during the first day of the workshop, which was held at the research conference centre. The aim of the event is to curb discrimination against LGBTI students at various universities.

The event was a joint effort between Univen, the University of South Africa and the University of the Witwatersrand, and many traditional healers and clerics around the Vhembe region attended.

“We have conducted research at various universities and we find out that students from the LGBTI orientation are discriminated against by other students. It is the reason that we hope that, if we addressed communities, traditional healers, leaders and pastors, it would help in spreading our message,” she added.

Prof Azwihangwisi Mavhandu-Mudzusi of Health Studies at Unisa said the key to eradicating HIV/Aids on university campuses was to eradicate discrimination against people from different sexual orientations.

“If LGBTI individuals' rights are violated, they will continue to engage in sexually risky behaviours, which will make reaching a zero HIV/Aids infection rate an impossible mission. In the research, we find out LGBTI students' human rights are violated at the universities by both students themselves and staff at different levels,” said Mavhandu-Mudzusi.

Dean Alunamutwe Rannditsheni stated that the church was divided into two groups, people who supported the LGBTI+Q community and those who condemned them. A former student at Univen, Ms Mmalethabo Sedibe, stated that discrimination was evident at Univen during her four years of study. “I never care what my fellow students said about me as lesbian, and I always responded by saying that I am a woman.”

Some traditional healers, various pastors and community members who attended the LGBTI symposium at Univen.

 

Date:10 November 2017

By: Silas Nduvheni

Read: 660

 

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