News and opinion

Johannesburg, 25 November: Today marks the beginning of the Sixteen Days of No Violence Against Women Campaign. Since 1991 Sixteen Days of Activism has been used as a global organising strategy by individuals, civil society and governments to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women.

Johannesburg, 26 November: Each year as we commemorate Sixteen Days of Activism against gender violence, the most common question asked is, “How do we curb violence against women?” Of course there is no one single simple solution to this pandemic, but one of the key solutions is economic independence. When women are uneducated and financially dependent, they are less able to escape abuse and negotiate all aspects of their lives.

One month and half into 2011 and we have hit the ground running and our team is already swamped with work. Of course, this is not a novelty due to the kind of work we do at Gender Links. Gender Links keeps re-inventing itself, which is why there is never a dull moment.

Hello everybody, welcome to the December and January edition!

We all are back after recharging our batteries during the December holidays, ready to take on 2011! Time really does fly and at the start of the New Year, we might ask what are we going to do with our time at GL?

Hello everybody, welcome to the November edition!

Where has 2010 gone? We are now planning for our end of year party and office slowdown when many staff go on holiday. As I drove to work, I reminisced about the 2010 World Cup, flags flying on nearly every car and house, it was an exciting time to be in South Africa – what an experience. As with the seasons of life, it came, it passed and now it is just a memory. Events come and go but I am sure each one of us takes something out of every season that passes.

GL has had a good year. In two weeks, we will review our work in 2010: what worked well and what did not. I must say, we should indeed count our blessings as we are always reminded by you know who! We are all alive and well, we have jobs to come to every day and GL is growing stronger and stronger. We are no longer giant footprints but the actual giant.

This is my first edition as the editor of Gender Linked, taking over from Mukayi. It’s exciting yet challenging to be gender-linked and keeping you connected within the GL family! I had to borrow the quote from my hero Nelson Mandela. I think GL has good leadership – good head, good staff and good heart – with this combination GL is blossoming in its adult phase.

October saw the successful hosting of the Fourth Gender & Media Summit where 20 countries were represented, including many from Africa, as well as Canada and India. Almost 140 delegates descended on Johannesburg’s Birchwood Hotel from 13-15 October. The delegates participated in an intriguing programme providing regional and international perspectives around Gender, Media, Diversity and Change. The award ceremony – our very own GL “Oscar Awards” – was all glamour and fun.

The guest of honour, Deputy Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission Thoko Mpumlwana, gave a brilliant speech applauding GL’s work. With our own DJ Roger we later stretched and moved our bodies to his many tunes to unwind after an exhausting week of hard work.

No prizes for guessing who has been working especially hard on staff. The Executive Director has been so swamped with finalising the writing of the Gender and Media Progress Study (GMPS), the regional and national Barometers, not to mention the many publication launches, and at the same time travelling to Europe to meet with donors, to name but a few!

October also saw the arrival of two external evaluators, Alemu Mammo and Sandra Ayoo, who are carrying out GL’s five year DFID/UNIFEM programme evaluation. This is taking place ahead of GL’s tenth anniversary next year. It is key to our institutional health, as well as to our future funding. They have been kept busy carrying out in-depth interviews with our partners, satellite offices and staff.

GL has also been short-listed for further funding from DFID under its most flexible civil society funding arm, the PPA. About 400 organisations applied and only 40 were shortlisted. We have some hard selling to do before the process closes on 30 October, but the presentation done by our ED and M&E Manager at the DFID meeting was well received by top DFID decision-makers.

GL has also been shortlisted for the Mail and Guardian’s Investing in the Future Award for our Gender Justice and Local Government Summit – let us keep our fingers crossed. All this work came with its fair share of challenges; everyone was over-stretched, but GL made it happen. “Yes we can” – is the ED’s favourite saying and it applied in this case.

Finally, the tragic news of the death of Andrew Jones and the shooting of his wife Kubeshini Govender Jones, came as a shock to all of us. Andrew had been filming the GEM Awards and he was due to fly to Mauritius on GL assignment. This couple have had a long-standing relationship with GL, especially the ED, and it hit close home. May Andrew’s soul rest in peace and we wish Kubeshini a quick recovery, both physically and emotionally.

Happy reading and stay tuned for November news.