 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
|||||
 |
||||||
 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
||
|
Case
Study: Sonke Gender Justice Network Learn more
about this project: The Sonke Gender Justice Network works with men, women, youth, and children in the South African Development Countries (SADC) region to achieve gender equality, prevent gender based violence, and reduce the spread of HIV and the impact of AIDS. Sonke employs various social change strategies to promote a healthy, equitable society, ranging from individual skill building and community education, to organizational development, community mobilization, and policy advocacy. Crucial to the success of the work that Sonke engages in is ensuring that the voices of those most directly affected by violence and HIV are represented across Sonke activities. Since 2007, the Center’s Silence Speaks initiative has trained Sonke staff on facilitation assistance; set up a mobile computer lab; and coordinated a series of digital storytelling workshops in the urban areas of Johannesburg and Cape Town, and in rural KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Eastern Cape. Most participants were recruited from Sonke partner agencies where they receive services, attend HIV support groups, or work as peer educators/activists. Potential participants were briefed on the production processes to be used and on the fact that Sonke would like to screen their stories publicly (release forms were optional, and were signed at the end of each session). Workshop methods were determined in relation to participants’ interest in/prior exposure to computers. Each workshop maintained the Center’s commitment to participatory processes. Several sessions involved pre-workshop orientations and the distribution of disposable cameras, to enable participants who often have few personal photos to generate images for their stories, while other sessions featured health education components either prior to or after the story sharing segment, to build knowledge and leadership among participants about gender-based violence and HIV prevention. All sessions afforded participants the chance to create original artwork, using pens and colored pencils, for inclusion in their stories. Every-day stories told by sub-Saharan Africans who are affected by HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, or poverty tend to be in short supply. Media representations often tend to be extracted from communities and then shaped and packaged by professionals into news segments or fictional dramas that reinforce negative stereotypes or encourage sensationalism and pity. By contrast, the Sonke stories strive to offer an alternative vision. Some of the stories are raw testimonials about survival; others challenge misperceptions about men and masculinity and offer examples of the role both men and women are playing in confronting gender inequality and other forms of injustice. Silence Speaks assembled two multilingual collections of Sonke digital stories by youth and adults (in English, or in Xhosa, Venda, or Tsonga with English subtitles) and accompanying discussion guides, which are emerging as crucial tools in the organization’s work. Sonke and its many partners are screening these stories with careful facilitation across Southern Africa as a way of educating local communities, training service providers, inspiring policymakers, and promoting sustained community action for change. |
|
|
|
||
