Namibia Coalition against GBSV

07/02/2023

Namibia Coalition against GBSV is no longer a formally active network. Founders of the coalition will however keep social media pages open to assist survivors of GBSV in accessing services. If you are in urgent need of assistance, you can call Lifeline Childline at +264811400222 or drop us a Direct Message.

20/09/2021

The Premie ward at Windhoek central hospital is in desperate need for clothes, blankets and diapers for new borns and desperate new moms. If you can donate, please call Alna at 0856211263

19/05/2021

I'm doing a donation drive for the new Mamma who delivered quintiplets at Whk Central. If you want to drop off nappies, formula, wipes, winter babygrows or blankets please whatsapp me on 0856211263. Delivery to be made on Monday. P. S please ensure that 2nd hand items are in a good condition. Regards, Alna
https://www.facebook.com/OneAfricaTelevision/videos/506260743905117/

08/12/2020

Create your 30sec video message and mail to us!

Following the recent messages from the Minister of Gender Equality, Social Justice and Poverty Eradication we, Namibian women, and men are calling for her resignation.
Join us, and create a message to the leaders, including the Minister who calls for criminalizing withdrawing of cases, regardless of the various reasons provided. Yet, there is no resources, protection services or safe homes for victims and survivors.
Let's stand in solidarity and call for her resignation.

08/12/2020

This. Is. Madness.

Gender minister Doreen Sioka’s repeated calls to lock up those who withdraw police complaints threatens to further muzzle abuse victims. https://www.namibiansun.com/news/sioka-accused-of-gbv-victim-blaming-2020-12-07/

27/11/2020

Today is the first of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence and our newspapers report 11 lives devastated by GBV. Change is possible - we can simplify protection orders. These are already drafted and have been tested by magistrates themselves and are sent to the Ministry of Justice regularly to beg them to adopt them, but they just don't). Do you know someone who holds this change in their hands? Send us their email address (by DM if confidentiality is a concern) and we'll add it to today's mail sent out to leaders who can improve our protection orders. And remember to keep Protesting Online through the link in our bio.

Lives devastated:
- A man strangled his pregnant partner to death and then hanged himself. He was out on bail for two criminal cases one for the attempted murder of his girlfriend and another for aggravated robbery in which a victim was killed.
- A man murdered his partner and then burnt down the shop in which she remained.
- A man threatened the mother of his children with a spear and when she escaped with their children to a relative’s house, he hanged himself.
- A man r***d a 12-year-old girl in her home.
- A man r***d a mentally ill woman in her mother’s house.
- A man tried to r**e a 4-year-old girl in her home.
- A man r***d a 17-year-old girl in her home.

27/11/2020

Change starts with you. This of Activism, speak up and take a stand with us to end violence against women and girls. unwomen.org/endviolence

27/11/2020

Men take a stand against SGBV
As the country grapples with rising s*xual gender-based violence, a group of men have taken a stand to demand an end to the scourge. https://neweralive.na/posts/men-take-a-stand-against-sgbv

23/11/2020

A lot of action promised by stakeholders.
Let's monitor and mobilize people to demand access to protection and health services. Let's demand stricter bail conditions and sentences for GBV convictions. Let's strengthen and support the rehabilitation programme of the Correctional Services.
Let's demand better care and protection for women and children!

23/11/2020

21/11/2020

Please join us to stand in solidarity with those who lost their lives, and those who still live in pain.

See you at 8am on Monday, at B1 City Mall.
Tell your friends!

Let's stand in solidarity on Monday, and remember the ones who lost their lives, and those who still live in pain.

Join us at 8am on Monday at B1 City Mall.
Please wear make-up to look like you are dead, or bruised.
Basic make-up will also be available for free on the day.
Please bring your own posters!

20/07/2020

Female members of Parliament, you are not boycotting efforts at legalising abortion. You are boycotting the well-being of women across the country. It is frightening to think that the abortion debate is what finally unites female MPs across party lines. If only they would show such comradery when it comes to protecting women from gender-based violence.

Those of us who work tirelessly for the protection and empowerment of women are outraged to learn that female MPs including Elma Dienda and Margaret Mensah-Williams, recently refused to attend a workshop organised by the SADC-Parliamentary Forum on a new s*xual reproduction and health rights, HIV and AIDS governance project. We are even more disheartened at the WhatsApp thread that has been circulating on social media where female MPs, including Mensah-Williams, Dienda and Hoebes allegedly call the efforts to initiate debates on s*xual and reproductive health rights as “diabolical agendas, laced with evil”.

What is diabolical is that s*xual and reproductive health has been reduced to an ethical and religious debate that completely ignores the devastating realities faced by girls in our society. In 2013, the UNFPA estimated that 46 000 teenage girls were impregnated in Namibia in the space of a year. That’s an average of 127 pregnancies per day. According to a UNESCO situational analysis on Early and Unintended Pregnancy (EUP) done in 2019, EUP directly effects two out of 10 teenage girls in Namibia. That means that 20% of our young women have no control over their futures. They have been robbed of the ability to get a decent, unhindered education. They have been robbed of the chance to pursue their dreams and escape generational poverty. With these figures in mind, it is no surprise that the Ministry of Health recorded 7 000 illegal abortions in the country in 2017. Let’s not forget the thousands of illegal abortions that are taking place without our knowledge, which could have fatal consequences for our women.

Dienda absolves herself from these issues by mentioning her involvement in tabling the Learner Pregnancy Policy in 2017, a band-aid approach that does not address the root causes of the problem. Although a big step in the right direction, the policy has been poorly implemented and is failing to provide a holistic solution to EUP. Legislation of this sort does not fully address the emotional and financial obligations that young mothers face, nor does it place any of the responsibility upon those that impregnated these girls. Shall we remind the public that s*x with a girl under the age of 16 is r**e? Yet, the responsibility of contraception, child-bearing and child-rearing is carried solely by young girls, often with stigma and shame. Unintended pregnancy is not only a problem for teenage girls, but for many women who have been denied the right to decide what happens to their bodies, women who have been coerced into s*x or are abandoned once they are pregnant.

Religious organisations are entitled to their ethical opinions. After all, this is a democratic country where we encourage and appreciate free speech and healthy debate. However, Namibia is a secular state. The Members of Parliament in our democratic country are elected to represent all the people of Namibia, regardless of their spiritual or moral beliefs. Above and beyond, female Parliamentarians have an even greater responsibility to ensure the health, wellbeing and safety of the girl child in Namibia. Imagine our immense disappointment when these elected female leaders use their position and power to tyrannically prevent this debate from occurring. Where were these voices and opinions when Namibian women took to the streets, begging government to allocate more resources to the fight against gender-based violence? In 2018, activists delivered an array of well-researched recommendations to the Ministries of Gender, Health, Justice and the Namibian Police to help protect our women. We submitted these recommendations to politicians including Elma Dienda. Why, women in leadership, were you quiet?

There is no dispute that religious organisations and service providers have played a significant role in the care of destitute women and children. Once we look beyond our positions of “pro-life” or “pro-choice”, we will realise that we all have the same interests – the wellbeing of mother and child. None of us want cyclical poverty or the violence that potentially stems from childhood trauma and rejection. Perhaps one day, we can work together to prioritize the health and wellbeing of women despite our ethical differences. Until then, Namibia remains a democracy. All opinions are welcome. And our leaders are elected to put their own personal opinions aside in order to pursue an agenda of poverty eradication, social equity and the empowerment of women and children. We call upon our female MPs to stop pursuing their personal agendas. As leaders, but more importantly, as women you have been awarded an opportunity to make a difference and that comes with a responsibility to deliberate and serve.

Yours in Solidarity,
Namibia’s Coalition Against Gender-based and S*xual Violence
gbsvcoalitionnamibia@gmail.com

21/06/2019

OKAHAO – The Office of the First Lady Monica Geingos together with Ongwediva Medipark Academic

19/06/2019

ALWAYS.

It’s a landmark change to India’s marital r**e laws.

13/06/2019

WINDHOEK – Jessica Geingos is one of five female offenders serving time with their toddlers in the Windhoek Correctional Facility.

07/06/2019

Never gets old!

Men are just as responsible for pregnancies as we are, and if our bodies are to be regulated, so too should theirs.

03/06/2019

https://www.boredpanda.com/gay-boy-church-bullied-story-rafi-dangelo/?cexp_id=18511&cexp_var=2&_f=featured

Coming out is tough. Coming out as a 12-year-old is social su***de. Liberating social su***de. When Rafi D'Angelo made his bis*xuality public, the world turned against him and he didn't have anyone by his side. It got so bad, Rafi even attempted su***de.

27/05/2019

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/domestic-violence-most-common-killer-of-women-united-nations_n_5bfbf61ee4b0eb6d931142ac?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000050&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbS5mYWNlYm9vay5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANjO0mOQUdVSO41_zWNs8YBR7MeiGpQQov2_p2XvUp5hr2SuoIYjGNGVtAgh3cGN1nhJE7nqXomh_pUOOcG73_Bz8AfCocUKI7zsdM2FrncqmTRcUBYOZIwAqSrQ04tnt-hD_AXy19m-_nhsWIHmb_m4DV8-3roTYjzr1UVHogFA&fbclid=IwAR388DRKpPMOOd3YcgwUp5bKr72nbX4JmxDr0UXWUk0F5L9ubUJWSh3FrxM&guccounter=2

A U.N. report revealed that 87,000 women were murdered last year, and over half were killed by intimate partners or family members.