Summit 2014:KGATLENG DISTRICT COUNCIL

Though the gender committee, the Council has a comprehensive plan on Gender Based Violence. The plan addresses the critical areas of Coordination, Assessment and Monitoring, Community Outreach, Protection and Security as well as Education and Capacity Building. The plan has been addressed to all the needs of survivors as well as perpetrators of gender based violence. The council through the department of social welfare and community development has taken an initiative to incorporate gender based violence in Performance development plans and monthly reporting tools. Officers in the department are expected to report the number of child abuse cases, domestic violence, cases before court, as well as referred cases. This initiative has been able to help the council to track and insure that all cases are attended with the seriousness they deserve. The council continue to provide training to and workshops to capacitate officers who handle gender based violence cases. Every quarter officers are trained on psychosocial support through Ark and Mark. In recognition of the challenges faced by officers working on gender based violence cases, the council continues to organise retreats camps, to allow for debriefing to avoid cases of burn-out that are likely to hamper productivity and the quality of services rendered thus leading to secondary victimization of clients.

Key objectives *

What did the process set out to do? (250 words) *
The GBV interventions were geared at addressing GBV incidences in the district by providing the community with available interventions such as counselling, rehabilitation programmes and well as assistance in terms of child abuse litigations. The community was provided with this information through media and other forms such as kgotla meetings and workshops. The community was also taught about the dynamics of gender based violence. The other most important reason was increase the visibility of men on issues of gender based violence and domestic violence since their participation has been minimal. The process also focused on capacitating officers to improve their competence in handling GBV cases by providing training on the legal system, psychosocial support services as well as retreat for officers in an effort to provide debriefing and sharing of information. The process also provided ways in which services on GBV can be standardized by sharing of information with different district on how they have successfully dealt with GBV cases.
Skills alignment
Through the Social Welfare and community development has taken a step to restructure the department in an effort to improve the quality of services offered to survivors of gender based violence. The restructuring was proposed in an effort to ensure that only qualified and competent officers are the ones to intervene on cases of gender based violence.
Radio Programmes
The council is currently participating in two radio programmes at Gabz FM and RB2 (In partnership with Stepping Stone). The programme at Gabz FM is called five nights only, and airs every Monday at 2220. The show is hosted by Seabotseng Bafeletse. It focuses on general gender issues including gender based violence. The RB2 programme