Sixteen Days of Activism - Don't agonise, MOBILISE!

South Africa's 16-Day campaign of No Violence Against Women and Children culminates with International Human Rights Day - 10 December 2002. Powerlessness, poverty and the violation of women and children is driving the spread of HIV/AIDS, and in turn, the epidemic is destroying not only lives but also the prospect of any progress in terms of women and children's rights. And yet, as you read this, the attacks continue, unabated.

Dr Mamphela Ramphele, formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and now World Bank Managing Director, said in a 1992 interview with Femina magazine:

"Right now, men can choose to sacrifice the right they have appropriated to sleep around. Not tomorrow. They can accept equal responsibility for the children they bring into the world, and decide not to spend their evenings in shebeens while their wives work their second shift in their own homes. It means a personal revolution in attitudes. Most men won't tolerate an assertive woman - and in the townships, divorcing your husband means divorcing your accommodation as well.

"[However], women are still primarily responsible for socialising their children. This gives them real power to shape the attitudes of the next generation. You do not have to be a victim of tradition."

That was 10 years ago, before democracy was a reality in South Africa, when HIV/AIDS was largely being ignored as a possible threat to our nation, and when the terrible consequences of that dismissal were not foreseen.

Now, despite their greater vulnerability to illness and deprivation, women are still desperately holding their communities together. It is the retired female nurses and teachers who trudge across rural hills to tend to the younger generation of terminally ill men and women; it is the gogos and young girls and boys who are heading up many thousands of households throughout our region. Yet society is virtually inert, numbed by the scale of the rape statistics, despite the violation of babies being increasingly reported.

Let us all do whatever we can, right now - "NOT TOMORROW", as Dr Rampehele said a decade ago.

• Get the word out - to young and old, men and women, rich or poor, communities, leaders and individuals - through education about prevention, transmission and treatment of HIV/AIDS



• Establish women-friendly services - in all our own neighbourhoods, let's ensure that clinics and police stations treat women and children with respect. Join the fight for widespread access to low-cost medicine and female-controlled prevention methods.



• Encourage women's economic independence, so that they are not reliant on sex-work or men's income in order to survive. Give your support to income-generating projects in your area.
  
  
• Join up with one of the many worthwhile projects committed to orphan care - search the HIVAN database for details: https://hivan.org.za/searchOrganisation.asp



• Make the law work for you - a very useful, easy-to-read resource is the "ABC of Women's Rights in South Africa", authored by Bess Pillemer, Louise Torr and Futhi Zikalala, published by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. At a cost of R20 (plus postage as applicable), it provides invaluable information on domestic violence, access to justice, the Bill of Rights, cohabitation and contracts, employment equity, the informal economic sector, maintenance, marriage, wills and much more. To obtain a copy, contact the CSLS on (031) 260 1291


Above all, use your voiceto speak out and end the stigma around HIV/AIDS, the abuse of women and children and unfair labour and social practices. Don't wait for someone else to sort it out - stop agonising and start mobilising!