10 December marks the end of the Sixteen Days

10 December is International Human Rights Day. It marks the close of the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence. 10 December is also the twentieth anniversary of the South African Constitution that delivered the promise of gender equality and the right to bodily integrity.

As we end the Sixteen Days and move into the Season of Giving  Gender Links seeks your support for the Sunrise Campaign  – a call to all who care about equality and justice to “give the gift of empowerment”. Donations of any size can be made online from anywhere in the world by clicking here. Sponsors in the US can receive a tax certificate from our partner CAF by using the platform here. If you prefer to make a pledge please fill in the form here.

The programme and campaign won the 2016 Mail and Guardian Investing in the Future Award in the Skills and Enterprise Development category.

It costs just $1000 or R15,000 for women to go through the year- long training programme that has been shown to reduce violence, increase income, agency and relationship control as well as uplift whole families. The Sunrise Campaign, piloted in ten Southern African countries over the last three years,  aims to raise $100,000 over the next six weeks to extend the programme to another 1000 women in 2017. In South Africa, the campaign is supported by the Social Justice Initiative, that will match donations made by South Africans.

During this period GL is also running SADC Protocol@Work summits in eight Southern African countries under the banner 50/50 by 2030: Empower women, end violence. Among the participants are 200 of the 1350 survivors of gender violence across the SADC region who have reclaimed their lives through becoming entrepreneurs. Watch the video here. Read the personal accounts of the emerging entrepreneurs. Learn more about the Empower Women, End Violence Programme. The campaign is affiliated to UNWOMEN’s Orange the World – raise money to End Violence Against Women and Girls campaign. The Sunrise Campaign has been endorsed by Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Special Envoy on Gender to the African Development Bank and has been nominated for the Mail and Guardian Investing in the Future awards 2016. Our full press release can be found here. Attached is a piece in the leader page of the M and G Friday concerning the campaign. Please also join us on twitter: @Genderlinks#SunriseCampaign.

In addition to supporting the campaign yourself, please consider sending this on to at least ten people you know. Imagine if every work place and every community said no to violence and yes to empowerment! Together, we can break the cycle of gender violence!