What Church Leaders in Southern Africa are Doing to Tackle Gender-Based Violence

The Church and United Nations will be at the forefront of this intervention, he added.

At the grassroots level, the church members and their respective leaders are also involved in justice system interventions, with Catholic women in Witbank and Pretoria dioceses initiating a ministry outreach to rape survivors, offering them spiritual and paralegal support before and during the court hearings, Fr. Stan shared.

“Attrition studies have established that some of the rape survivors drop the criminal charges because of lack of support system and threats from the perpetrators,” he disclosed and added, “The Catholic women have managed to offer rape survivors the pastoral accompaniment necessary to address attrition in rape cases.”

Considering that violence against women is “an attitudinal and behavioral issue” that cannot be tackled conclusively through justice system reforms only, Church leaders in South Africa are also participating in mobilization of change in behavior and social norms, a key plan in the recently-released national action plan to end GBV, Fr. Stan said.

“More than 80 percent of South Africans profess to be involved in some form of religion.   It means perpetrators are most likely people who come to our churches.  It is therefore important for the faith leaders to be at the forefront of speaking out and challenging men in their Churches to stop violence,” Fr. Stan said during the June 29 interview.

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JPC has been running an initiative inviting “all men of faith” in the country to publish a video on social media challenging violence against women, with 142 faith leaders including Catholic Bishops and  Priests as well as  Pastors from other churches  participating during the months of May and June.

The “video challenge” is a result of a 2018 United Nations and JPC national summit for faith leaders belonging to various denominations and religions that identified the initiative as one of the “effective methods” against GBVF, the JPC Coordinator noted.

To make the initiative more effective, Fr. Stan said that there is a plan to organize a training program for the faith leaders so as to equip them with Gospel-based tools, incentives and skills for challenging men to end violence against women.  

JPC is also involved in a mobilization campaign targeting men at taverns and other beer drinking joints, a program that won the recognition of the UN as one of the “most effective strategies of social mobilization around GBV.”

“Taverns are spaces where thousands of men meet every week to socialize and drink beer.  At the same time, alcohol is one of the contributors of gender-based violence,” Fr. Stan told ACI Africa adding, “We partner with associations of tavern owners.  They offer us a platform to come to the taverns to discuss with them issues about real men.”