VZCZCXRO9176
PP RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #0354/01 0530639
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 220639Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1301
INFO RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN PRIORITY 7599
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN PRIORITY 1663
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG PRIORITY 9952
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 000354
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AID SA
SUBJECT: S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS: CHALLENGING CULTURE AND
CREATING OPPORTUNITY
REF: SECSTATE 132094
-------
SUMMARY
-------
1. (U) Post is honored to nominate Justice and Women's (JAW)
Impepe (Blow the Whistle) Campaign and Malibongwe's
Empowerment and Training Centre for the Secretary's Office of
Global Women's Issues small grants initiative. In a country
where one in three women can expect to be raped in her
lifetime, JAW's campaign takes the novel approach of
challenging the deep cultural practices and beliefs that
exacerbate the crisis of sexual violence, involving
traditional leaders, youth groups, government and police in
their solution. To address the plight of unemployed and
formerly homeless young mothers, as well as women just
released from prison, Malibongwe's training center offers
life skills counseling, job readiness and entrepreneurship
classes and a micro-enterprise program that teaches women to
develop profitable and sustainable small businesses.
Together, these projects address two ofthe most debilitating
problems facing South African women: one of the highest
incidences of rape in the world and an unemployment rate for
women of just over 25 percent. Out of a pool of more than 50
applications, these two proposals best address these priority
issues with initiatives that are creative, sustainable and
have the potential to be replicated to reach a broader
community. The projects are presented in priority order. End
summary.
--------------------------------------------- ------
JAW'S BLOW THE WHISTLE CAMPAIGN: PROBLEM STATEMENT
--------------------------------------------- ------
2. (U) In South Africa, victims of sexual violence are unable
to access support at a community level or from government
providers. Rural women and girls in particular are excluded
from health services and legal recourse because customary
practices and beliefs dictate that victims must keep silent
about rape and sexual abuse. Traditional communities believe
that rape and sexual violence are "family matters" that must
be dealt with privately. Consequently, women do not report
rape and the practice of paying damages or compensation to
the victim's family is the typical response. Additionally,
communities already traumatized by extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS
and high levels of crime and violence do not have the
capacity to respond to crimes of sexual violence in a humane,
compassionate and cooperative way. Communities also struggle
to hold police and health care providers accountable for
service provision to victims.
-----------------------------------------
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: BREAKING THE SILENCE
-----------------------------------------
3. (U) The Impepe project was born out of experience. In
August 2009, nine men gang raped a teenage girl in Yanguye at
gun point in front of her family, sparking a crisis for the
local JAW staff. For the first time, the organization had to
directly confront a situation involving the community in
which they lived and worked. The staff of JAW feared taking
action as they were afraid of retaliatory violence, but
recognized they had to respond. Ultimately, JAW staffers
found the courage to address the practical needs of the
victim and her family as well as address the deep culture
which bred the violence. They held a series of community
meetings, one of which used forum theatre methodology to
encourage participants to discuss the rape with the
characters in the drama. This unique approach led the
participants to acknowledge the community's silence about
Qparticipants to acknowledge the community's silence about
rape and begin to explore ways to take a visible stand
against gender based violence. Outcomes included a decision
to reinstate defunct community policing structures and a
community march involving 300 youth. As a continuation of
the work they began last year, JAW proposes to work
collaboratively with two rural communities and local
government service providers over 18 months to develop a
sustainable, democratic and cooperative response system that
supports victims of sexual abuse and violence to access their
constitutional rights to bodily integrity, dignity, gender
equality, sexual and reproductive health, health care, police
protection and legal support.
4. (U) JAW seeks to build the capacity of Yanguye and one
other rural community to respond to rape and sexual violence
rather than building dependence on NGOs and external
resources to maintain the intervention. They propose to: 1)
build awareness for rights of sexual assault survivors at a
community level; 2) build the capacity of traditional leaders
PRETORIA 00000354 002 OF 003
and formal community structures such as Community Policing
Forums (CPF) to take action on sexual violence against women
and children and 3) build cooperation between communities and
local government structures to improve service delivery to
victims. They will achieve these desired outcomes through 1)
community legal literacy training on the Sexual Offenses Act
and related issues including sexual and reproductive rights,
police, legal and health support services for victims and
prevention and identification of sexual abuse of children and
2) community conversation and informal "tea sharing" groups
in homes to surface cultural practices, rebuild social
connections and rejuvenate the community's sense of
compassion and ability to support others. JAW will conduct
similar legal training and conversations with traditional
leaders and Community Policing Forums. They will also train
the leaders and CPFs to build referral systems between all
stakeholders and to monitor state service provision and
community practices with the goal of devising appropriate
interventions when breakdowns occur. JAW will measure their
performance in terms of the numbers of community members and
leaders who complete the training, the numbers of CPFs
successfully rejuvenated or newly formed, the numbers of
incidences reported through the referral systems and through
statistics on the numbers of community cases processed
through the law enforcement, health and judicial systems.
5. (U) JAW requests $91,000 to conduct this project over an
18-month period. Out of this total, $50,890 will be spent on
project staffing costs consisting of a project manager and
assistant, a senior coordinator, a facilitator and five
mentors and interns. JAW budgeted $17,802 for workshop costs
such as venue hire and materials, $11,273 for monitoring and
evaluation and $10,604 for operating costs. Post is using a
rate of R7.60 = $1.00
--------------------------------------------
RECIPIENT: LOCAL GENDER JUSTICE ORGANIZATION
--------------------------------------------
6. (U) Justice and Women (JAW) is a local, registered
non-profit organization in existence since 1997. JAW has 14
staff members, of which 11 are women. It is managed by Jenny
Bell, a social worker with 15 years experience in the NGO
sector. Attorney Amber Howard Cornelius coordinates JAW's
Access to Justice Program and supervises 3 paralegals, a
community development facilitator and seven community
interns. They are accountable to a board of trustees which
meets on a quarterly basis to review organizational
activities and expenditures and make management decisions.
The organization has financial management, procurement and
employment policies in place which inform all management
decisions. The chairperson of JAW Trust, Charmane Pillay, is
a family law attorney in private practice who is the national
gender convener for the National Democratic Lawyers
Association and an Acting High Court Judge. In accordance
with JAW's constitution, all trustees are women from diverse
backgrounds who work in the legal, NGO and governmental
sectors. JAW's work has been supported by Oxfam, the Joseph
Roundtree Charitable Trust, the Open Society Foundation and
UNODC.
7. (U) The Human Rights Officer in conjunction with the
Community Grants Office will manage the grant. The Impepe
campaign will complement the Mission's Women's Justice and
Empowerment (WJEI) programs, especially as they relate to
police training on the handling of sexual offense cases and
Qpolice training on the handling of sexual offense cases and
the Thuthuzela Care Center (TCC) model. It will also
complement PEPFAR programming where the legal literacy
training touches on sexual rights and the prevention of HIV
infection.
--------------------------------------------- --------
MALIBONGWE'S EMPOWERMENT AND TRAINING CENTRE: PROBLEM
STATEMENT
--------------------------------------------- --------
8. (U) In South Africa, more than two million people are
homeless, with one in four South Africans living in squalor
and sub-standard accommodations. Many of these families are
headed by disadvantaged young mothers who lack job skills or
prospects. They are forced to live in unsafe conditions and
engage in risky behaviors in order to survive and provide for
their children. Additionally, with women comprising five to
eight percent of the prison population, former inmates are
swelling the ranks of the homeless. Although government and
NGOs offer services to assist the homeless, young mothers and
the recently incarcerated with immediate needs, few programs
exist to assist these women in reaching their full potential
and reintegrating into society.
PRETORIA 00000354 003 OF 003
------------------------------------
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: SKILLS AND JOBS
------------------------------------
9. (U) Malibongwe plans to partner with three other
non-profit organizations to offer an 18-month pilot program
to address this gap in services for women in Pretoria and
Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng. They propose a day
program that will target not only unemployed and formerly
homeless women, but also women who are former prison inmates.
The Empowerment and Training Center will be a safe space for
women to heal from past abuse and learn how to make more
positive life choices through counseling and mentoring.
Additionally, the Center will offer job readiness courses,
arts and crafts training and entrepreneurship skills in the
context of a micro-enterprise program.
10. (U) Malibongwe's pilot project aims to mentor an initial
group of 30 women, followed mid-year by a second group of 40
women. Partnering with Joy Bringers, a non-profit
organization which focuses on transforming the lives of
prisoners, Malibongwe will offer classes and individual
counseling on life and parenting skills, anger management,
abuse recovery, art therapy and a re-entry group for
ex-offenders. Each woman in the pilot groups will be given a
mentor who will help her develop a realistic plan to become
self-sufficient. In collaboration with St. Augustine College
in Victory Park, the Center will also offer job readiness
courses in resume preparation, interviewing skills and basic
computer skills. The staff of Malibongwe will also train the
women in original arts and crafts design and creation for
resale with retail outlets already identified in local
airports and tourist areas. Junior Achievement South Africa
will partner with the Center to run an intensive business
program where the women will start and run their own
businesses after selecting a product or service. The
participants will be grouped by interest into
micro-enterprises of five women each and taught how to create
and sustain a small business. They will use the traditional
"Stovkel", or savings club, model with each group member
contributing a set sum weekly and receiving a payout once a
year to grow her business. Malibongwe will measure the
pilot's performance in terms of the number of women trained
in each area with the goal of 14 profitable and sustainable
micro-enterprises established at the end of the 18-month
period. They will also measure their success in terms of how
many women have been able to secure jobs and safe housing for
their families.
11. (U) Malibongwe requests $49,590 to conduct this pilot
project over an 18-month period, having already received a
grant of $5,400 from The Octane Fund. Out of this total,
$25,650 will be spent on project staffing costs consisting of
a project director and outreach coordinator. Malibongwe
budgeted $23,940 for education and training course materials
and craft supplies. Travel and administration costs will be
covered by the Octane Fund. Post is using a rate of R7.60 =
$1.00
--------------------------------------------- -------------
RECIPIENT: LOCAL NON PROFIT FOCUSING ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
--------------------------------------------- -------------
12. (U) Malibongwe, in operation since 2007, is an initiative
of Masiphane Projects/CDPT, a local registered non-profit
organization. The project director, Sheila Wise Rowe, has a
Master's degree and has been trained in monitoring and
evaluation through USAID. Formerly on staff with the Harvard
Qevaluation through USAID. Formerly on staff with the Harvard
School of Public Health's Peer Education Project in South
Africa, she has developed numerous partnerships with the
business and civil society communities. The staff and
volunteers have been trained in peer counseling and have many
years of experience in art and crafts design, business, sales
and manufacturing. As a program of Masiphane Projects,
Malibongwe undergoes yearly financial audits.
13. (U) The Human Rights Officer in conjunction with the
Community Grants Office will manage the grant. Malibongwe's
Empowerment and Training Center will complement the Mission's
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) programming through USAID.
It will also complement PEPFAR programming where the life
skills training touches on sexual rights and the prevention
of HIV infection.
GIPS