Scores of young women converged on Langa United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA), at NY22, Gugulethu, on 7 Wednesday February to attend a self-realisation workshop. Run over two days (Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 February), it was organised by Ilitha Labantu, a non-profit organisation that works towards ending gender-based violence (GBV).
Scores of young women converged on Langa United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA), at NY22, Gugulethu, on 7 Wednesday February to attend a self-realisation workshop. Run over two days (Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 February), it was organised by Ilitha Labantu, a non-profit organisation that works towards ending gender-based violence (GBV).
Ilitha Labantu spokesperson Siya Monakali described the workshop as one of his organisation’s holistic training programmes that seek to empower, develop and capacitate women to be self-sufficient and independent. He said more than 50 women from Gugulethu and neighbouring areas attended it, most of them GBV survivors.
He said the aim is to break the cycle of intimate-partner violence and domestic violence.
“Our social workers conduct these workshops. Through them we hope to rebuild their self-identity and confidence so they can be self-reliant. We also use these platforms to provide self-readiness skills training and other skills-based training under our building-bridges programme, which seeks to empower survivors of abuse.
”One person who attended the workshop, Sinethemba Mnathwana from Marcus Garvey in Lower Crossroads, described it as most fruitful.
“I was repeatedly abused at a young age by a relative. I didn’t tell anyone about the ordeal. But as I grew up the incident kept haunting me until I decided to come to Ilitha Labantu, where I was assisted.” She said she is much better now, especially for being able to tell her story.
