While South Africa is in lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, for some, isolating at homepresents additional risks. Know that help is available during the lockdown – for anyone at risk of domesticand gender-based violence. Click here to download a Safety Plan – for staying safe while enduring an abusive relationship, or when planning to leave, and...
Continue reading
While South Africans are stockpiling and preparing for a 21-day countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, for some, isolating at home presents additional risks, on top of avoiding possible CoVid-19 infection. According to the National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSM) one of its main concerns is the potential for increased violence against women and children,...
Continue readingSouth Africa has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence, but its shelters are battling to stay afloat – and government departments have been slow to explain why, writes New Frame journalist, Zandile Bangani....
This research paper highlights weaknesses in police responses to victims of domestic violence by reviewing call logs documenting requests for assistance at three-hundred eighty-two (382) police stations across the country. The data emanates from research conducted by the Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBF) and the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre (TLAC) in Gauteng and the Western Cape in 2012 and 2013,...
Continue reading
Women activists who have been conducting countrywide protests since the peak in femicide and violence against women in September have released an appeal to the government to use a portion of the additional funding set aside by President Cyril Ramaphosa to increase and strengthen shelters for abused women and children, writes Moira Levy....
This publication is the final in a series of reports that the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the National Shelter Movement of South Africa have produced in relation to their ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to Gender Based Violence (GBV): Paying the True Costs’ project’. GBV, and to be more specific, intimate partner violence (IPV), is a significant contributing factor to many...
Continue reading
This publication is the fifth in a series of provincial studies describing women’s uses of shelters undertaken by the HBF and the National Shelter Movement of SA’s EU-supported ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to GBV: Paying the True Costs’ project. It builds on and extends these prior reports by attending to all women, rather than focusing only on those experiencing intimate...
Continue reading
The Hlanganisa Institute for Development in South Africa, the National Shelter Movement of South Africa and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, have recently launched a report which proposes new costing framework for shelter facilities and programmes. This is a much needed initiative as while shelters provide absolutely critical services to abused women, the majority are not only chronically under-funded –...
Continue readingAs Women’s Month draws to a close, about 130 vulnerable women living in shelters gathered on Thursday for a luncheon hosted by the Western Cape Women’s Shelter Network. Joy Lange, executive member of HBF's project partner, National Shelter Movement of SA, spoke to the Daily Maverick about the purpose of the event and some of the challenges facing shelters....
Continue reading