The members of Songe Social Change non-profit organisation (NPO) have launched a venue called Safe Place at Gxulu location in Libode, where girls from the ages of 15 to 24 would manage to voice out their problems.
This campaign is called #sayit.
The technical leader for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) at the Beyond Zero Organisation (which is the funder of Songe Social Change), Pam Qavile, said the members of this organisation had received a lot of cases related to social problems that young girls faced.
She said that is why this month, they had decided to focus on raising awareness about gender-based violence (GBV).
“Most of the time, the people who report these cases are girls, but they are very far from places where they could get help. By launching this safe place, we are trying to meet them half way.
“They are facing a lot of challenges because, when you talk to them, you find that they depend on falling in love with old men (blessers) in order for them to get money and things that could make their lives easier.
“Some of them end up being abused by these men and also by their boyfriends,” said Qavile.
She said these places would help them because they would now manage to talk about their problems and get help after that.
The centre manager for safe spaces at Songe Social Change, Lungiswa Gashi, said among other things that are found in Safe Place are clinical services where these young girls would be tested for HIV and AIDS, teenage pregnancy and other things.
She said there were social workers who would assist them with counselling. “When they visit our centres, they get a lot of benefits,” Gashi said. One of the beneficiaries said they were very happy because when they visit this area, they feel safe and are more open about their challenges.
“At least now our secrets will be safe; even if you tested HIV-positive, the community would not know because everything is treated confidentially here,” she said.
