Have you ever thought about volunteering? Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust will be running a training course for volunteer counsellors and volunteer trainers from 18 July 2009. For more information or to apply please contact Shiralee on 021 447 1467 or Liezel on 021 684 1180. As space is limited we advise that you apply as early as possible. The closing date for volunteer applications is 3 July.
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Sharon Kouta (Victim Empowerment Programme Coordinator, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Western Cape), Kathleen Dey (Director of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust), Derrick Schroeder (Directorate Social Dialogue & Human Rights, Department of the Premier)
NGO mission on violence, a tiny pulse of hope.
Lessons learned on campaigns to stop violence were revealed in the city last month on 27 May 2009.
The Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust launched the ‘Stop the Bus’ booklet last night at Centre for the Book in Cape Town.
The booklet documents lessons learnt from campaigns to end violence against women in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. The Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust is an NGO that advocates for change, creates awareness about rape and sexual violence and offers support to those affected by it.
Kathleen Dey, Director of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust said: “Rape Crisis annually holds a campaign called Stop the Bus, where we travel to different towns within the Western Cape to create awareness of rape and violence against women. Year by year we have seen this campaign grow. This booklet serves as a recipe for success for not only for other NGO’s that run these kinds of campaigns but also for smaller, informal community groups that want to make a difference.”
Guest speaker, patron, and well-known crime writer, Margie Orford spoke about the importance of the booklet to NGO’s and her experience with Rape Crisis: “This booklet serves as a vital tool to other NGO’s and government departments to assist them to implement awareness campaigns. The Stop the Bus campaign started as a tiny pulse of hope to women across the Western Cape. Rape Crisis is one of those places where you can go to for help.”
Dey added that the booklet is available for R30 and soon will be available on the Rape Crisis website as a download. “We would like to encourage NGO’s, government departments and State services providers to purchase the booklet, which can greatly enhance the organised involvement of community groups during commemorative days such as Women’s Day and 16 Days of Activism. Not only does it document our experience but also campaigns from Zimbabwe and Ghana so it is a recipe that can be followed in any context.”
Sharon Kouta, Victim Empowerment Programme Coordinator for United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime Western Cape said: “UNODC works in close partnership with the Department of Social Development and other key stakeholders to address the high rates of criminal victimization in the country, particularly with regards to women and children.
“Violence against women and children is rife. Lack of services make this issue a specific human rights problem. UNODC would therefore like to congratulate Rape Crisis on this important initiative.”
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We learned many lessons from last year’s Stop the Bus campaign against gender violence. To help other NGOs implement similar campaigns, we’ve partnered with UK-based Womankind Worldwide to produce a book called Stop the bus! I want to get on.
We’re launching it tonight in Cape Town and will make it available on the site for download as soon as we can.
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Photo credit: aussiegall on Flickr
We’re about to launch a fundraising campaign that we hope will draw in some of the thousands of people from all over Cape Town who have benefitted from Rape Crisis services over the years. Our goal is to raise ongoing funding of R100,000 a month so that we can keep all our programmes running.
The official launch is tomorrow — watch this space for more details!
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The Community Against Abuse (CAA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) held an awareness raising event on Saturday 13th December in Retreat. The theme for the event was ‘Sports against crime’. The event was held on an empty field within the community:
Children were attracted by the jumping castle and face painting.
A tent was set up to accommodate exhibition tables and speakers from CAFDA, Rape Crisis, Mosaic, Positive Muslims and DOJ. Lawyers from the University of the Western Cape were available to answer questions from community members.
Various organisations were invited to speak about what they could provide to the community and to answer questions:
Advocate Mohammed gave a detailed account of bail conditions.
Chrissie from CAFDA engages with a concerned community member.
The community listened attentively to all that was being said.
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The Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust in partnership with Clicks are preparing for the Stop the Bus 2008 campaign held during the “16 Days of Activism - No Violence Against Women and Children”. The aim of this year’s campaign is to support and network with rural and peri-rural organisations. We were fortunate to be invited to several events. The schedule is as follows:
30 November - Franschhoek
10 December - Atlantis
13 December - Ashton
13 December - Retreat
The Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust March with Women on Farms Project
First stop was in Franschhoek on Sunday the 30th of November 2008. Rape Crisis was invited to an HIV and AIDS awareness event planned by Women on Farms Project in Franschhoek’s City Hall. The Rape Crisis crew included Nokwaka, Jemina, Bajija, Edith, Shiralee, Maria and Line. They were all very keen to get going and were awestruck by the beauty of the Franschhoek area.
Women on Farms Project invited farmers and workers on farms to hear testimonies from women who had experienced abusive relationships. Some of the women spoke very compellingly about how within the context of domestic violence, they had contracted HIV and experienced rape and the impact this has had on their lives. Speakers from Women on Farms Project spoke about the kinds of services they provide within the rural communities. Rape Crisis spoke about women’s rights and handed out pamphlets to those who were very interested in the work that we do.
We marched from the City Hall to the Huguenot Memorial where a candlelight service was held. This was the first time some of us experienced a feminist pastor.
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On the last day everybody on the bus wrote a little note on their experience of Stop the Bus.
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The 8th of December 2007 was our last day on Stop the Bus but before we could go back to Cape Town, we were going to an outdoor event at Kliprug Gemeenskap Saal in Prince Alfred´s Hamlet.
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On the 7th of December 2007 we started with a nice breakfast. Marie, the owner of Uitvlugt Guest House made sure all of us got a nice start to the day.
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We started the day with a nice breakfast and in the diningroom we met a woman who works for Rape Crisis in the Free State. We had a little chat with her and Ma Joyce told her about Stop the Bus. 
We gave her some pamphlets, she was very happy to get the material because she doesn´t have these pamphlets at the Rape Crisis she works at.
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