At the end of the 100-Days, the team increased the referral of new GBV cases by 262%, translating to 1092 victims/survivors accessing psychosocial services in a single month.
Beyond the numbers, the team was inspired by the response to the awareness-building campaigns. These created safe spaces where people felt comfortable sharing without judgement. It is part of the healing process.
Problem analysis: System mapping | Structuring the Plan & Team | Getting the Word Out: Media Campaigns & radio interviews & social media | Community Outreach 8 community outreach events | Posters & Marketing Collateral | Visibility – T-shirts & posters | Peer Support | Training | Venue secured for Counselling | Role Clarification | Transparency: Integrated reporting of monthly referral statistic.
Communication | Opportunities to collaborate and learn | Stakeholder representation and Coordination | Maximising existing resources & Sharing resources | Geographical reach – transportation support | Awareness campaigns | GBV Support Services -Resourcing | Creativity under constraints | Measuring the impact | Building support capacity | Government department mandates | Safe space for healing
FOCUS AND GOAL
Focus
An effective response, care and support are integral to healing and comprehensively working towards eradicating GBVF in South Africa. Currently, the response service is largely ineffective and insensitive to the needs of survivors and those working to support them. Victims are intimidated by the court process and do not feel safe presenting their cases due to fear of secondary traumatisation and rejection of their cases.
The number of victims being referred through the system did not reflect the understanding that the district had been identified as a GBVF hotspot. It was, therefore, possible that the referral process in the district was not as effective as it could be, and intervention in this process sought to improve the existing process and identify and shift obstacles to create a more effective catchment system for victims. The aim of this was to ensure that more victims were identified and had access to the services on offer within the district.
Pillar 4 of End GBVF Collective identified the need to increase referrals to supportive services by ensuring that the referral system is more coordinated and ensuring that those working in the system have access to psychosocial support.
From the four key interventions of the GBVF National Strategic Plan, the pillar 4 national pillar team selected one area for the district to choose an Impact Challenge.
Results
100-Day Goal:
Increase referral of new GBV cases by 300%, from 416 per month to 1248 in 100-Days
At the end of the 100-Days, the team increased the referral of new GBV cases by 262%, translating to 1092 victims/survivors accessing psychosocial services in a single month.
Beyond the numbers, the team was inspired by the response to the awareness-building campaigns. These created safe spaces where people felt comfortable sharing their experiences of victimisation and abuse, some for the first time ever, including some 100-Day team members. This reinforced the importance of discussing these issues in communal settings without judgement. It is part of the healing process.
Stakeholders
Experiments, Innovations and Actions
Problem analysis: Referral system mapping
- Referrals: Victims and survivors are made aware of psychosocial services available and can get access to these services on offer within the district.
- Court processes: Find ways to make the system more accessible to victims and to prevent secondary traumatisation.
- The process at SAPS: Victims may be intimidated by processes at police stations, not feel safe when presenting their cases and may fear secondary traumatisation and rejection of their cases.
The gap identification was shared with the 100-Day team to help them identify their 100-Day goal and develop their work plan.
Structuring the Plan & Team
The number of team members that joined the initial team workshop was more than expected, so the team decided to create 3 subgroups, each with a team leader.
One sub-team focused on counselling and psychosocial support and ways to share the workload for new clients.
Two sub-teams focused on communication in different areas, aimed at creating community awareness to increase the reporting of cases and inform victims where to get help.
Peer Support
Debriefing for Social Workers at Thuthuzela Centre – The Socio-economic status, horrendous testimonies, and personal hygiene of certain clients prompted the need to offer psychosocial support to Social workers and Team leaders.
Venue for Counselling services
In discussions with SAPS in Bronville, the team secured a house for NSP-100 Day Challenge team members to use for Counselling victims.
Role Clarification
Meetings were held with SAPS, DSD, the GBV court, civil society service providers, and the Thuthuzela Centre to provide reporting and psychosocial support services to emerging victims, survivors, and their families.
In the case of the Welkom Magistrates Court, after discussion with the senior prosecutor, they undertook to ensure that every case gets referred to a service provider through their partnership with FAMSA and other institutions.
Getting the Word Out
Media campaign
Two Radio interviews were done by team mentors and team leaders to sensitise the community that not reporting cases and the withdrawal of cases limit access to services, and victims are left with emotional scars that need to be attended to. The appeal was to encourage victims and survivors to seek counselling and support as unresolved trauma can lead to anger and depression and can contribute to the upsurge in women being convicted of violence that is, in reality, self-defence.
Social media platforms were also used to share information about the referral system and the campaigns.
Community Outreach
The team hosted ten awareness campaigns targeting various audiences, e.g. schools, churches, etc., to raise awareness about the availability of integrated services and the importance of not withdrawing cases. Community outreach events were held at:
- Virginia
- Wesselsbron
- Fathers and Sons day
- the Central University of Technology
- Lenakeng Technical School
- Welkom Central Business District
- Bronville
- Henneman
- Tosa Village
Some team members viewed the campaigns as their biggest achievement because they were changing people’s lives and our community’s narratives. During these events, several victims came forward, and the team also saw an increase in the reporting of cases.
Posters & Marketing Collateral
Golf T-shirts were printed for the 100-day challenge team members to help create awareness through visibility.
Posters were placed at Welkom Magistrates Court, Department of Social Development offices and Department of Basic Education in Lejweleputswa District entrances to create more awareness about the importance of communication when offering support and care.
Transparency - integrated reporting
Monthly statistics on referrals were gathered from the following service providers
- Thuthuzela centre
- SAPS
- Magistrates Court
- FAMSA
- DSD
- CPF – Community Policing Forum
Training
The 100-Day team met at the Department of Social Development to train team members on communication and its relevance to care and support.
Insights gained and lessons learned
Communication
Communication was key in keeping the momentum and sustaining newly found relationships.
Recommendation
- Keep networking and sustaining newly found relationships through regular meetings and forum engagements
- Maintain Whatsapp group and Facebook group
- Continue to collaborate on awareness campaigns
Opportunities to collaborate and learn
With the team consisting of stakeholders that had not worked together before, creating the space for people to share and learn from each other was important. The GBVF NSP Ambassadors created the space for this collaboration and learning through the way they engaged.
The Ambassadors had to earn people’s trust by showing up accordingly and fittingly. This also helped to build trust between team members.
Recommendation
- Opportunities to collaborate across organisations should be created for knowledge sharing and also relationship building. Together we can do so much more than if every organisation works independently.
- Give the responsibility to facilitate collaboration to one of the organisations.
Stakeholder representation and Coordination
Initially, there were changes in stakeholders that were part of the team, some fell away, and new members joined. That made it necessary to often do recaps to bring new team members on board. Running a project with different stakeholders who have never worked together in a focused manner is complex and should not be underestimated.
The project’s success depends on having the right stakeholders on board. Although there was good representation at the first workshop, some key players, including DSD, TCC, Domestic violence court representatives and SAPS representatives, did not attend all the meetings and workshops.
Recommendation
- In selecting the 100-day team during the Leaders’ Design Workshop, it is important to involve as many stakeholders as possible to ensure broad representation on the team.
- Leaders should be supported to onboard the team members they have selected to clarify expectations and have team members stay active during the 100-Days.
Maximising and sharing existing resources
Stakeholders on the 100-Day team put resources together for team activities which enabled the team to do more than what individual stakeholders could have done. Trust was also built by being transparent and open in sharing resources.
Recommendation
- The budget cycle for NGOs and DSD may need to be more flexible to make provision for this model of sharing resources and collaboration between stakeholder groups.
Geographical reach - transportation support
The Matjhabeng municipal area consists of 6 towns: Welkom, Virginia, Ventersburg, Allendridge, Odendalsrus, and Henneman. Undertaking activities in all these towns turned out to be difficult. New team members were enlisted from outside Welkom, like Wesselbron, to support activities in those towns. If more funding were available, the team could have expanded representation to all towns.
Some team members did not have the means to travel to weekly meetings. Some team members walked over 10 km to attend a meeting, after which plans were made to support them financially with transport, and mentors assisted with transport.
Recommendation
- Collaboration on project activities would enhance peer learning and the sharing of resources, but this requires resources for travelling and refreshments. An adequate budget should be allocated for future projects to enable a wider geographical reach for projects.
- Team members who all volunteer or work for NGOs may not have the resources to travel to weekly meetings or join virtually. Provisions should be made to enable and support selected team members to participate fully in team activities.
- Include other municipalities that were not part of the 100-Day Challenge. Have quarterly forum discussions at district and provincial levels.
Awareness campaigns
The awareness campaigns were well attended, and awareness was created on services available. During these events, there were many cases where victims and survivors came forward and requested help.
Recommendations:
- Do more community engagement regarding GBVF services available.
- Take services to the communities and make it easier for them to access services during these campaigns.
GBVF Support services - Resourcing
In a project that involves many NGOs and volunteers, the lack of resources can be a major obstacle. The 100-day team found creative ways to raise funds and pooled resources to enable the work. A holistic approach is necessary to resource support services at the local level.
Recommendation
- Collaborative projects involving NGOs require additional resources to support the team’s activities. Funds to be made available for the different campaigns and other relevant interventions.
Beyond collaborative projects, the team made the following general recommendations based on their experience over the 100-Days:
- First responders must be provided with the necessary resources, e.g. vehicles, to provide the services.
- NGOs to be adequately funded to do their work
- Review of the availability and capability of VEP offices or services at all SAPS offices in the district.
- The government system is not enabling. Instead, it is handcuffing people with passion and commitment
- Department of Social Development can do better; they must be fully committed to the process.
Creativity under constraints
Despite the existing resource constraints in the referral and support services in the district, the team realised that they could not wait for long-term solutions and came up with creative ways to overcome the obstacles.
These creative ideas include:
- Raising funds for a campaign through a raffle.
- Not being able to pay for catering, the team rolled up their sleeves and cooked food for one of the events together.
- The team reached out to retired counsellors and ministers to assist with providing psycho-social support to victims and survivors voluntarily.
Measuring the impact
Currently, there is no central source of information on referrals and support services. The team had to rely on nudging and asking favours to get monthly statistics from some stakeholders. In certain cases, it was also complicated by a lack of transparency.
Recommendations:
- Districts should have a central data management point to enable better collation of data from various sources.
- Departments and NGOs should share statistics regularly to provide strategic guidance on necessary interventions and identify gaps.
Building support capacity
The 100-Day team put in a lot of effort to make people aware of the support available and to get victims and survivors to reach out for help. The dramatic increase in referrals experienced during the project highlighted the need for more capacity to handle the increased referrals.
Recommendations
- Provide lay counselling training for all volunteers to be able to comfort and support clients. whilst they wait for a referral
- Provide counselling training to increase the number of people working with Social Workers.
- Provide debriefing services to all programme participants.
Government department mandates
One of the mentors of pillar 4, who works for the police, was not allowed to join a radio interview as she was not the official spokesperson for the police.
Despite the explanation that she would be speaking as a mentor to the 100-day team, she was not given permission.
Recommendation
- During the engagement with leaders at the start of the project, the “mandate” of the participants should be clarified and permission given that they can represent the team on various platforms.
Save space for healing
Being part of the 100-Day team also brought healing to team members who were victims/survivors. It helped members to open up about their own experiences, and while supporting others, they also found healing.
1340
Survivors and victims directly impacted
in 100 days
33
Organisations
involved
To what extent would you recommend the 100-Day Challenge experience?
To what extent did the 3 behaviours emerge during the 100-Day Challenge, compared to before?
"What surprised me
was the excitement of working with new people and the knowledge received in that process"
The 100-Days
01 April - 09 July
2022
"This work is about Love, it was emotional for me to be an instrument for this work"
Unsung Heroes
People not part of the 100-day team but without whom the results would not be possible:
Nono Sebego, Rosy Dube and Khantse Skosana from National Prosecuting Authority in Welkom Gender Equality
Tracey Kotzen, Kea Motau, Gogie Itumeleng – 100-Day Challenge Ambassadors
The World of Impact 100-Day Challenge exhibits 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
