#Fundthefight: End GBV

GlobalGiving

October 2020 Update

The Wise Collective is at the forefront of advocating for gender equality, forcing change to ensure women’s access to justice and providing solutions towards shifting the power inherent in the patriarchal oppression of women.

To that end, the organization continues to be a voice for women, publicly challenge unfair decisions and practices that not only disadvantage women but sometimes put them in harm’s way. Through this work, we recently celebrated a victory when a magistrate who is suspected of corruption due to the extremely lenient judgements issued against perpetrators who sexually violated women and children, was suspended from the bench. This victory will have long lasting effect towards fighting gender based violence in a country where 1 in 4 women is raped every 15 minutes, a prevalance rate that places South Africa among the world’s highest rape statistics for a country that is not in combat. Publicly calling out systemic enablers to the violence against women is a good deterent and has the potenttial of saving hundreds more women from experiencing such violations.

In addition, we continue to represent women and children in legal cases including those dealing with sexual harassment, overall harassment including by state institutions such as special police units, domestic violence, child custody, and defamation. With an average of at least three (3) requests per week, WISE has proudly taken on over 90% of the requests for legal representation with the support of a young feminist lawyer and an advocate. Below is a highlight of significant wins in the past month:

•  In a divorce case whereby an estranged husband had been physically and verbally abusive yet is now using the woman’s depression and mental state to take the children away from her - WISE legal team represented the women and won immediate access to her children. The case will continue for arguments on permanent residence of the children.

• A young woman who was sexually harassed at work and later unfairly dismissed also received representation from the WISE legal team; she’s won the first round of her case at the labor arbitration and has been granted the right to proceed with seeking legal recourse in the labor court. In addition to legal support, she also received support from a psychotherapist and career coaching to enable her to emerge stronger from this experience.

• An ongoing case we have been investigating and gathering evidence has received the attention of the National Intelligence Agency as we are paving the way for a group of women to bring collective charges against a church leader who has been sexually violating them.

The WISE team believes no one woman deserves to be violated and that attending to each single case helps us build a culture that respects women’s right to safety. We thank all our supporters for sharing your gifts with us. Together we will achieve Gender Equality!