Conversations about gender-based violence through the use of the arts

A unique collaboration between community organisations using arts-based methods to combat gender-based violence in Alexandra

Alexandra, Johannesburg – Talking about gender-based violence can be a very big challenge for gogos (grandmother in isiZulu) and yet many of our older generation are the primary caregivers of adolescent children in South Africa. Four prominent organisations in the public health and arts fields: The Sarraounia Public Health Trust (public health researchers and practitioners), Lefika La Phodiso (community art counselling and training, as well as arts-based programmes for children), The Trinity Session (visual artists and craft makers) and goGoGogo (an organisation based in Alexandra, Johannesburg that provides programmes and support to older caregivers) have partnered in the Masikhulume (lets talk) project generously funded by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. The Masikhulume project aims to work with adolescent girls and their older caregivers to address Gender Based Violence by creating safety nets in the home and community.

Through combining their unique skills, these partner organisations are offering intergenerational workshops for teenagers living with their grandmothers. The workshops started in November 2024 and will conclude in February 2025. The focus of the project, taking place at Itlhokomeleng Association for Aged & Disabled in Alexandra, is to educate adolescent girls and their grandmothers about gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and child protection. This project is unique because it integrates the therapeutic arts through methodologies such as doll-making and community mapping. Managing director of Lefika La Phodiso, Rozanne Myburgh indicates, “we use stories to keep us safe, it (puppet doll story telling) makes you feel psychologically safer to speak when you don't say ‘I’ but ‘she’. We call it distancing and it’s a technique. Some of the stories may have additional details, but they all hold the truth. You will see even one girl (from a particular workshop group) came Khosi (facilitator) and said the story was about her (the girl).

Gender Based Violence is a pervasive problem in South Africa and adolescent girls and young women are particularly vulnerable. Despite efforts by the government and civil society to address gender-based violence, its prevalence remains high, especially in impoverished communities such as Alexandra in Johannesburg. Adolescent girls and young women, are exposed to various forms of gender based violence such as physical, sexual, emotional, financial and cultural violence which negatively impacts various aspects of their lives and overall quality of life.

“Many interventions have been designed and implemented across South Africa to end gender-based violence, yet it remains pervasive. We understand that Masikhulume is novel in multiple ways: it involves art-making as a means to communicate, it offers opportunities for education and information sharing in small groups and using arts-based participatory methods, it works with adolescent girls and their older caregivers, and it offers an intergenerational approach to dialogue,” says the project lead from The Sarraounia Trust, Dr Nancy Coulson.

The workshops take place in two phases with each organisation taking responsibility for specific parts of it. Firstly, adolescent girls (divided into two groups 10-14 year olds and 15-19 year olds) and gogos receive a psycho-educational workshop combined with doll-making where the following learning outcomes are discussed: Creating a safe space for themselves and others and understanding personal boundaries; Representing themselves and building relationships through creative expression; Understanding their (or their grand children’s (for gogos)) changing bodies and making (or helping them make (for gogos)) informed decisions about their reproductive health, free from discrimination, coercion and violence; Exploring experiences of support with older carers (or adolescent girls under their care (for gogos)), Identifying problems and coming up with solutions; and understanding their rights and responsibilities. Secondly, we bring the grandmothers and the two groups of adolescent girls together in a workshop where they have the opportunity to engage in an intergenerational dialogue at the Spark Gallery in Orange Grove. In this workshop they have the opportunity to reflect back on the psycho- educational workshop through writing or drawing on a piece of paper, add a superpower to their dolls as a symbolical reminder of their own unique strengths, self-recognition and empowerment even in the face of daily challenges, and map their community to find spaces of safety and where they don’t feel safe.

“Participating in the intergenerational dialogues allowed me to discover healing through actively engaging with the stories of others, and I gained valuable insights from their experiences,” shares facilitator Mantala Nkoatse.

Participants hold the space for each other, while facilitators contain the session. Project manager, Nobukhosi Ncube, shares: “some of the key themes that we come across include gogos experiences of gender-based violence in their marriages. Most gogos allude to have had this experience and still harbouring much anger from it. This anger is taken out on their children who have passed it on to their grandchildren and the cycle of violence persists in many households. Gogos speak about looking within, working on themselves to find healing. There is also a high prevalence of drug addiction in families; rape culture; children bottling things up because “guardians” are not approachable, those kids become suicidal; lack of trust in the justice system - perpetrators still walk free.”

Teenagers often share about themes of sexuality, emotional abuse, helplessness when abuse happens at home, emotional blackmail from parents/guardians and fear to ask or talk to gogos about sexual and reproductive health related questions because they do not know how to approach the subject or fear that they will be judged.

“Making the dolls makes us forget the things that stress us,” shared an older woman caregiver participant. “It takes our minds off the stress and help us focus on the process.” An adolescent girl expressed, “I am the happiest girl around people but I cry when I am alone... Thank you for letting me feel safe enough and for allowing me to express my emotions and talk about things that I have been hiding from everyone.” Managing director of Lefika La Phodiso, Rozanne Myburgh shared that this is exactly the aim of including therapeutic arts into the session. “Utilising our unique community art counselling methodology, we are assured that participants feel safe enough to share their experiences and we are able to facilitate safe enough spaces with our trained community art counsellors.”

Gogos also expressed gratitude for the Masikhulume safe space opportunity to speak about their experiences, with many of them indicating “I am happy that I am able to openly talk about this today” and “I have been dying inside with no one to talk to about all this.” Director of GoGogoGo, Jane Simmonds, says: “The feedback from our gogos affirms our belief that intergenerational work needs to be done. Intergenerational trauma is tough, but just one session of being heard means so much.”

For media enquiries

Nobukhosi Ncube
nobukhosi@sarraounia.org
+27 74 386 0832

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT COLLABORATORS

The Sarraounnia Public Health Trust

The Sarraounia Public Health Trust is a not-for-profit public health agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Established in 2008, work at the cutting edge of development and change in public health through research, advocacy and intervention programs. The Trust collaborates with diverse stakeholders to promote evidence-based solutions that improve health outcomes, particularly in underserved communities. Our work spans key areas such as maternal and child health, infectious disease prevention, and gender-based violence, with a strong commitment to systems thinking, reaching vulnerable populations and enhancing women and youth engagement through participatory approaches.

Website: www.sarraouniatrust.org
Contact: Dr Nancy Coulson

nancy@sarraounia.org

+27 83  289 7335

Lefika La Phodiso

Lefika La Phodiso is based at the Children’s Memorial Institute in Gauteng. Since 1994, Lefika has responded to the impact of trauma and loss associated to apartheid, HIV and AIDS, violence and socio-economic disparities. Lefika’s primary objective has been to create accessible mental health services in under resourced communities. This has been achieved by building capacity through training community arts practitioners, artists, educators and mental health workers in creative analytic group work, bringing together arts therapy approaches, trauma work and group practice. Through specialised skills development within our training programme, Community Art Counsellors are able to facilitate community outreach projects in and around the inner city of Johannesburg, in rural areas - in schools, hospitals, community centres, NGO’s etc. Responding to international social justice and psychosocial mental health needs, Lefika now reaches communities across South Africa and abroad.

Website: www.lefikalaphodiso.co.za
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LefikaLaPhodiso
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lefikalaphodiso/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rozannemyburgh/
Contact: 065 094 2152 and info@lefikalaphodiso.co.za

The Trinity Session

The Trinity Session is a contemporary art production team based in Johannesburg, South Africa, specializing in urban and public art interventions. Founded in 2000, the collective engages with the dynamic intersections of art, technology and social spaces. Their work explores themes of urban transformation, social activism, and environmental sustainability through large-scale installations, performances and collaborative projects. The Trinity Session’s practice is rooted in participatory processes, fostering dialogue between communities, artists and city environments across Africa and internationally.

Website: https://thetrinitysession.com/

GoGogoGo

goGOGOgo is a community-based organization dedicated to empowering older women, particularly grandmothers (affectionately known as "Gogos") to become active agents of change in their families and communities. Through innovative programs focused on health advocacy, intergenerational mentorship and community leadership, goGOGOgo harnesses the wisdom, resilience and influence of grandmothers to address pressing social issues. By fostering strong networks and providing capacity-building opportunities, goGOGOgo ensures that Gogos play a pivotal role in shaping healthier, equitable communities.

Website: https://www.go-gogo-go.org.za/

Photographers: Ciara Struwig and Ayanda Mhlongo