Co-operate to conquer’ women urged
Women gathered at Noluthando Hall in Joza recently to honour Women’s Month together with Makana Municipality, the Raphael Centre, the Department of Social Development, Famsa and the Commission for Gender Equality.
The event was about empowering women.
A mother of two who has been living with HIV for 14 years had words of encouragement.
“I have carried this disease from the a bad time in 2003 when you could not sit next to another person and even if you were walking, people pointed fingers at you,” she said. “We used to be given names such as Omo. It was difficult to even go to the clinic for treatment because people will talk about you.
“We did not go out and say that we wanted it. It happened in the way that it happens. People were not understanding. HIV is not a death sentence and it can be treated and it’s not like other diseases. People must take the treatment and follow instructions,” she said.
She called up a woman in the audience and compared her to herself and asked the community “can you see the difference between us?”
She encouraged people with HIV to eat healthily “and don’t spread the disease”.
Andile Mayinja from Raphael Centre said, “Some people don’t take the treatment seriously and they don’t take the tablets on the time they’re sup- posed to.
“I encourage everybody to take the tablets no matter what. If you don’t take the treatment you get to increase the disease in your body and it increases very quickly,” added Mayinja. “It is important to have support. The illness is not in your brain, it is in your blood.”
Kama Nomlomo from the Department of Social Development said community development is where people are being developed as individuals and in family groups.
“We encourage people to stand up and do it for themselves, You can meet in numbers and form a project. We encourage women to form cooperatives of five to ten people. Once you have formed one, you can come to us or if you don’t know how to form a coop you can come to us so that we can show you how to open it and register it.
“The aim of a cooperative is to chase away poverty. Sitting at home not working has to be abolished. Women can group together as it is them who make the house warm,” said Nomlomo.
“As women in 1956 gathered together and went to Pretoria and shouted no to the dompas, they can join as cooperative. We are saying women must unite and work together to put food on the table and create jobs for themselves.”
Khaya Nkontso from the provincial office of the Commission for Gender Equality said, “We are aware that our office is not known by the people.” She spoke of violations such as children being taken out of school and forced to be made wives by older men.
“Stepfathers abuse young girls and grandmothers are accused of witchcraft,” she continued, explaining the range of issues the Commission deals with. “Some people are not treated well because of having love relationships with the same gender. We are asking the community to report such cases so we can support them.”
Silvia Dyonase, a social worker with Famsa, spoke about domestic violence and said such emotional and psychological abuse should be taken seriously.
“When the person you’re married to verbally abuses you and doesn’t do anything violent – but at night you don’t sleep: this kind of abuse is not seen by other eyes,” said Dyonashe. “A woman is a rock, that’s what we say, but that does not mean that we should handle them roughly because of their strength.”
The Raphael Centre’s Mary Humphreys said, “We thought, as the Raphael Centre, that HIV affects many people – women and men – and we want to have a dialogue with the community about how HIV affects women more than men.
“So we look at the link between HIV and violence. We are also here to celebrate what women have done for Makana and other parts of South Africa,” Humphreys said.