Pretoria - The banging of pots, pounding of drums and the loud singing of the participants of a flash mob hit the streets of Pretoria on Thursday as the Viva Foundation took to the streets to raise awareness around violence against women and children.
The group from Mamelodi East brought the Bang Your Pot initiative into the city as part of their programme for the 16 days of activism against violence against these two vulnerable groups of society.
“We want to catch the attention of bystanders and make them realise that they can actually join in and be part of the activism. We want to make as many people as possible aware of efforts to prevent this violence in our societies,” said participant Jared Burchell.
He explained that the Viva Foundation was involved in the Tears Foundation initiative which offers assistance to parents of children who have been violated.
The group of about 20 men and women wore T-shirts inscribed with messages which sought to remind everyone they came across that violence was real: “Everyone has a role to play and we want people to realise they can participate, we want people to join,” Burchell said.
Viva Foundation is based in the informal settlement of Alaska in Mamelodi East, where together with community care workers they have intervention strategies for the families of the area.
Burchell said the police were in their network of partners: “We have a system through which people can contact us in times of trouble.”
Once they established that the danger was real they activated a multi-disciplinary team to intervene, he said.
The internationally recognised 16 days of activism against the abuse of women and children was on its second day on Thursday and, for the duration, government, the private sector and other stakeholders will play their part in making people aware of the need to eliminate the violence.
Violent crimes against women and children include physical acts on the domestic front, rape, murder, robbery and assault.
Emotional violence and trauma also happen in the home, at work and at school, on the streets and communities. Poverty has also been listed as an act of violence against these vulnerable people; inequality and unemployment are also identified as areas giving rise to violence.
Pretoria News
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