Our Programmes
Supporting and Regenerating Victims of Gender Based Violence
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Kuhluka Movement understands the deep psychological and socio-economic impact of domestic violence on survivors. We provide interactive and cutting edge programmes relating to self-esteem and identity, specialised counselling, and legal and health services to survivors of domestic violence to help restore their sense of self and give them hope towards the bright future that lies ahead of them.
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Advocacy Programme
Advocacy efforts promote inter-generational and multi-sectoral dialogues on the role of women and men in the violence against women discourse, particularly from a cultural perspective.
Key Objectives:
To strengthen platforms for the multi sectorial coordination.
Develop an evidence-based and coordinated advocacy agenda for the groups that are influencers.
Galvanise the relationship between survivors, advocacy groups and the Judicial system to adopt Survivor-based rights approaches.
High level advocacy and lobbying to ensure that legislation and legal processes protect women and bring perpetrators of GBV to justice.
Custodians of Culture
The Kuhluka Movement’s Custodians of Culture (CoC) is an initiative undertaken to translating awareness of GBV and harmful social norms into behavioural change with specific focus on the involvement of chiefs. Chiefs have both strong moral influence and unique networks to reach people. More importantly, as guardians of culture, chiefs are best placed to guide and influence their communities in the fight against GBV. In our work of the Custodians of Culture, Kuhluka Movement aims to debunk strongly held patriarchal cultural values that have become fundamental bases of the societal fabric that contributes to the cycles of GBV. This advocacy program notes that the involvement of chiefs as key stakeholders rather than mere participants allows us to utilise their skills, knowledges and expertise to identify and address these cases in collaboration with other key players at local level. Ultimately, CoC seeks to facilitate development of a new paradigm in which women and children are protected in society. This can be achieved by strengthening the capacity of chiefs to address issues of GBV in their communities.
Our work has included:
training of chiefs in human rights and gender,
facilitating of the development of chiefs’ plans to end child marriages,
facilitating the development of chief’s bylaws to end harmful practices that fuel GBV
Kuhluka Naked Conversations
The Kuhluka Movement’s Naked Conversations or Conversas Sem Preconceito serves as a unifying platform for a collective dialogue effort over time, focused on issues that are deemed as sensitive, difficult, and taboo. It is a platform to showcase and build intergenerational and multi-sectorial engagements across Africa, so that every institution, every organisation, and individual can play a part in building caring communities free of Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
Kuhluka Movement engages with stakeholders from all sectors in conversations that underpin our collective action or inaction in fighting against GBV and highlighting issues which are deemed the rock of our foundation. By doing that, we expect to inform and contribute with meaningful and impactful outputs that will feed into the mainstream of fighting the structural and systemic meanings and institutions that perpetuate GBV.
Circle of Support
Pillars of Support are volunteers who are trained and mentored by Kuhluka Movement to host and facilitate the Circles of Support in their different communities for victims and survivors of GBV. These are volunteers working as Pillars in Eldorado Park and Lenasia (Johannesburg); Rolle, Cottondale (Mpumalanga); Tzaneen (Limpopo) and Maputo in Mozambique. 99 Pillars of Support have been trained from May 2021 – March 2023 and will impact a minimum number of 1400 victims and survivors per month in their communities. They come from various social groups and backgrounds which create and instill diversity.
Training of Pillars is geared towards the following:
Equip the Pillars with information on GBV concepts, guidelines, and procedures.
Information on how to set up and run a support group
Equip the Pillars with Communication skills
Provide skills to assist the Pillars to provide an Enabling environment for the Circles
Provide information on the GBV laws and procedure.
The Kuhluka Dignity Pack
In a world where hundreds of women are abused on a daily basis, Kuhluka Movement chose to create a Dignity Pack comprised of basic essentials such as hygiene and sanitary items to be distributed in police stations and medical facilities immediately after a woman experiences a violent event.
The dignity packs ensure that at the time a survivor of violence is attended to, she immediately is given these essential items that respond to her needs, give a sense of security, access to initial information and restore her dignity. Preserving dignity is essential to maintaining self-esteem and confidence, which is important to cope in stressful and potentially overwhelming humanitarian situations. Over 5000 Dignity Packs have been distributed in the last three years in South Africa and Mozambique.
The Kuhluka Dignity Pack Value
Contributes towards a more humanised assistance to survivors of violence.
Helps the survivor to recover her physical and psychological dignity.
Provide an entry point for information on a range of services available for survivors.
One Dignity Pack is valued at R600, with the production of the box, procuring and assembling of items and distribution
Criteria for Awarding Dignity Packs
Being a woman
Signs of Rape
Open wounds
Women that declare having suffered violence
