Namibia: Riaan Siyama

Date: August 8, 2019

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Name	Riaan
Surname	Siyama
Country	Namibia
Give a short history of the leader	I am a graduate from the University of Namibia from the department of Lifelong Learning and Community Education. Though my objection in university life was not the beginning of my journey in community education, I had to obtain it as validation for my passion. After I graduated, I opened up an organization called Building Every Opportunity for Change (BEOC) where the mission was to have the community recognize it as a platform to resolve issues affection society. With it in operation, I met the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia that had the same interest and as well operated from the same vicinity. The prominence of the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia in the community-led to it merging with BEOC based on community demands. After the merge, there were great strengths by the organization in the community. The two organizations then decided to become one, as a result, the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia acquired BEOC. I, therefore, represent the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia as the media coordinator dealing with community programs and strengthening capacity on all levels of engagement.
Objectives	The community is a heterogeneous society that should be approached with various tools or resolution on issues affecting it. Therefore, these approaches should contain the input of individuals in the community
Key activities	Working with the community is a challenging aspect as most members of society have different cultures, traditions, values, experiences, and expectations. At points, the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia faces challenges of communication as most of our material is in English and they don’t do justice to those that do not understand English. However, the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia try to cut that down by having people that can translate the material into various other language. The office of the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia is located at the Disability Resource Center where it is difficult to have information for people living with disabilities on Gender-Based Violence
Key challenges	Genders equality is a sensitive issue in a society where patriarchy hampers its progress. According to Namibia statistics, 1 in 3 women’s rights will be violated, 86% of GBV surivors are women, 93% of men are perpetrators, 14.9% of survivors who sought for help, 29.5% of men who believe women should be beaten and 28,3 % young women justify beaten by men. With these relevant records on Namibian grounds, attaining gender equality is not a work in the park. The understanding of the importance of gender equality should still be instilled in the mindsets of the community. Involving stakeholders such as the Faith-Based Organisations is a positive way for attaining it.
Results
Change at the individual level	Leadership should contain the feature of gender sensitivity and that is a virtue I acquired in my push for the gender agenda. It has changed because as a gender activist, I should be sensitive to peoples needs. The community has influenced my transformation because I have to be working based on their needs and this has enhanced me to do more findings on gender and related issues.
Evidence of change at the individual level	The MenEngage Namibia and ChildLine LifeLine are two key bodies that have influenced my work on the White Ribbon Campaign Namibia. Under the ChildLine LifeLine program of telephonic counseling, I have referred a lot of clients who have testified to the importance of White Ribbon Campaign Namibia
Change at the household level	My family is very supportive with regards to the issue of gender equality where I always update them on new information. This has influenced decision making in my family where aspects such as family budgeting are now looked at by the whole family
Evidence of change at the household level	When it comes to decision making in the community where our organization operates, there has been an increase in the involvement of women and that is a sign of progress for our organization because we have been training men on the importance of gender equality. However, the change is not yet convincing because we need more female representation at all levers of community engagement
Change at institutional level	The institution is now at a national level where it operates with other organizations that have the same agenda. Recently, we worked with the Council of Churches in Namibia on how churches can be involved in changing patriarchal norms that hamper the success of gender equality. Our institution is part of the Namibian National Gender Cluster where we contribute inputs based on our findings from the community level
Evidence of change at institutional level	The institution is now at a national level where it operates with other organizations that have the same agenda. Recently, we worked with the Council of Churches in Namibia on how churches can be involved in changing patriarchal norms that hamper the success of gender equality. Our institution is part of the Namibian National Gender Cluster where we contribute inputs based on our findings from the community level
Change at a policy level	The organization had to change a variety of policies when it started looking at some more aspects of society. Since we also consult with the Federation of People living with disabilities in Namibia, the organization had to put in place policies around those frameworks
Evidence of change at a policy level	The White Ribbon Campaign Namibia has adopted policies that safeguards are works around all the aspects it covers. People living with disabilities have given testimonies as to the significance brought by the organization in thief lives
Capacity building	In April this year, we trained faith-based leaders on GBV in Namibia where we had 9 trainees who would implement their subjects in their churches. This training was a success because these churches still report to us and request for more material on the issue. We are also currently training a school of caretakers on advocacy and making them trainers of trainers in gender based violence
Lessons learned and shared	The community needs the capacity on sustainability and self-reliance with regards to gender issues. Therefore, NGOs are key stakeholders in this change
Next Steps	The youth should participate in these platforms as a method to cut down trends of intergenerational violence. This intervention should be put in place from the school level where it is mandatory to be educated on gender issues. The White Ribbon Campaign Namibia is in a pipeline with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture on how these aspects could be integrated