16 TOWNSHIP WOMEN QUALIFY TO WORK ON THE FRONTLINE AGAINST RAPE AND ABUSE
By Mike Loewe, Graaff-Reinet

November 17, 2003 – (East Cape News - Grahamstown) Sixteen women, who proudly received their training certificates in front of an empty stadium here, went home to take up the battle against the horrific and sustained rape and assault of children and women in the Eastern Cape.

With the festive season looming, their task, said Camdeboo mayor Daantjie Jantjies, will be to serve at the frontline in townships where liquor will flow and women and children will be raped and beaten.

Bestowing dignity on the occasion, he appeared at 9am at an almost empty Botanical Gardens sports grounds neatly and formally attired in a pressed black suit with his gold mayoral chain blinking in the hot sun.

He beamed as he personally handed each of the 16 women trained by the Camdeboo Violence Awareness and Victim Empowerment Project their certficates and posed for photographs.

He told the women, many of them of victims of domestic violence themselves, that in the years to come, the empty stands would be filled as more women and some men started speaking out about being violated.

"This is the first step in a thousand miles but this project will definitely make a difference in Camdeboo." The project, which drew together the police, social workers, nurses and people in the community could set an example "for the province, the nation and the world".

"This dream must grow to become a massive dream." He praised the Sibanye Violence and Victim Support Project set up by the Nieu-Bethesda Development Foundation for starting a "beautiful" project which had grown to include Graaff-Reinet and Aberdeen.

He said hundreds of people, many of them only children, would be raped and assaulted over the festive period.

"We must look these people in the eye and say: 'Enough is enough!'" The strength of the project lay in its community roots.

In an interview, he said victims would be able to see people in the community whom they could trust and this would help them speak about their abuse.

"They will be dignified by this and will see that somebody cares about them. It will also allow the community to discuss rape of children and women." Project member Ms Dora Oliphant of Nieu-Bethesda said that a network now existed in rural areas where few social workers, nurses or police women were available.

"People don't know where to go if they have been raped or hurt. Now they know there is this project and women are starting to stand up and say 'Please help me'." "In one case, a child who was raped by her father since the age of 11 has been able to speak about it. She is 16 now." A video, made with help from Mark Wilby of the Ibis Art Gallery in Nieu-Bethesda, was also being shown in local township homes.

She said: "When this child saw it she started to cry and then she spoke about everything. That child was pregnant." Project manager and Nieu-Bethesda Development Foundation director Mr Derek Luyt said the projects were funded by Pretoria-based Themba Lesizwe, whose 90 affiliates are part of the SA Network of Trauma Service Providers.

He said victim empowerment was prioritised in the government's national crime prevention strategy and the Social Development Department had been given the responsibility of leading and managing the Victim Empowerment Programme.

He praised government and business for their support for the programme saying the extraordinarily high levels of violence against women and children was diverting economic resources into health, policing, justice and social development.

"This cripples the education and skills development of a large part of our population and affects productivity." "Our research indicates that 70 percent of women in one town in the municipality who were physically or sexually abused never reported this to anyone." Volunteers, like the 16 women who received their certificates, were vital because of a critical shortage of social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists.

He urged that volunteers, who were trained to standards currently being set by the Victim Empowerment Standards Generating body within the national qualifications framework, should be paid by government.

Facing "extremly limited" rescources, he thanked businesses, like the 15 Graaff-Reinet businesses who sponsored prizes, equipment, and food for Saturday's festivities.

Organiser Ms Lee-Anne van den Heever said about 200 township people, farmers and townspeople and children attended the "It's a Knock-Out" day to raise money and support the for the project.

"They had lots of fun and were thanked for making a contribution at the end of the day."

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200311170838.html