JOHANNESBURG Tired of the continuing abuse of women and children, especially in the patriarchal African communities, four Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean men have come together to form a humanitarian organisation to fight for their freedom. (Pictured: Children at the school run by SAMAWA)
The Southern African Men Against Women Abuse (SAMAWA), was formed in January this year to help women in advocating for equality, and support disadvantaged children. Formed under the auspices of the now-popular Southern African Womens Institute for Migration (SAWIMA), SAMAWA is comprised of four Zimbabweans who all hold at least a teaching diploma and have worked with women and children before. When we heard about SAWIMAs activities of empowering women, especially those who have been abused by men while illegally trying to cross the border to look for a better life here in South Africa, we decided to join its cause, so that we compliment their efforts, said Farayi Mudzembwe, SAMAWA director.
SAWIMA has done a great job in helping women re-discover themselves after the trauma they have gone through, but we still felt that for the abuse to be curtailed, men themselves needed to be confronted about continuing this abuse, hence we joined SAWIMA as volunteers towards the end of last year. After working under the shadow of SAWIMA for some months, Mudzembwe and his three colleagues – Givemore Nyathi, Ezra Moyo and Marko Dube, decided to form their own lobby organisation.
The main target of the organisation, just like its mother body, is to confront the scourge of human trafficking, domestic violence and rape, among other social ills perpetrated against women and children, especially those from largely poor migrant communities. Less than a month after it was formed, the organisation was forced to hit the ground running, when it responded to the humanitarian needs of over 2 000 migrant families that had just been evicted from a Johannesburg flat. Most of the people affected by the eviction were women, children and the disabled, who had lived in the flat for years and had been left with nowhere to go.
On the childrens front, the organisation runs a weekend school in its Braamfontein offices, attended by over 60 children largely underprivileged migrant children from such countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Nigeria. Some South African children have also enrolled at the school. We do not charge the children anything because our aim is to ensure that education reaches all children, even those who do not have adequate money for school fees. However, some parents have donated R10 per childs attendance, which we use to buy stationary and refreshments for the children, so that they are able to concentrate, said Mudzembwe.
Post published in: News