Regional SASA! Roll Out
Raising Voices is rolling out SASA! regionally with 6 partners working in the Horn, East and Southern parts of Africa. The SASA! Regional Roll out is an intensive and exciting three year Technical Assistance (TA) partnership whereby partners are supported by Raising Voices to implement the SASA! approach in their respective communities using a variety of methods;
- Annual competency-based training and mentoring on the SASA! Approach here in Kampala.
- Annual onsite TA support to partner organizations.
- Annual Learning Center visits to Raising Voices/CEDOVIP and
- Regular (monthly in the least) distance support to partners via email and telephone
The SASA! Regional partners are:
Coalition on Violence against Women
http://covaw.or.ke/
The Coalition on Violence against Women (COVAW) is a national Non-Governmental Organization based in Kenya that works to promote and advance the realization of women’s rights through working towards a society free from all forms of violence against women. In its advocacy work, COVAW collaborates with organizations and stakeholders within the region and internationally and is in the process of becoming the knowledge generation and dissemination institute on violence against women for the Africa region. The SASA! approach is being integrated into existing program activities in Kajiado, a pastoralist community in southern Kenya and Nakuru, located in the Rift Valley Province
CARE Burundi
http://www.care.org/careswork/countryprofiles/26.asp
CARE International, Burundi is an international Non-Governmental Organization working towards women and youth empowerment in post-conflict Burundi to achieve the restoration of mutual trust and equitable development. The SASA! approach is being integrated into CARE strategies and is also used in their Women Empowerment Program in 7 urban and rural communes based in Bujumbura and the surrounding provinces.
WAR Botswana
http://www.womenagainstrape.co.bw/
Women Against Rape is a Non-Governmental Organization working in Maun, Botswana (Northwest District). It is a women’s rights organisation that supports abused women and children by providing shelter and psychosocial support and raising awareness about violence against women. WAR also works towards public education and legal reform through their schools program. This organization has primarily been a response oriented organization but since becoming a SASA! partner, it has deliberately made a significant shift towards VAW prevention. To date, WAR is committed to moving into more prevention based programming and has integrated SASA! in 5 peri-urban communities in the Northwest District of Boseja, Thoto, Sidie, Wenela and Disanena.
TVEP South Africa
http://www.tvep.org.za/
Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP), South Africa is a community-based organization dedicated to generating “an attitude of zero tolerance towards all forms of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and AIDS stigmatization in the Thulamela Municipality.” The SASA! approach is being used to strengthen TVEP’s existing prevention-based activities, specifically the Zero Tolerance Village Alliance, Break the Silence Campaign and Clinic-based Help Desks.
Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization Tanzania
http://www.kivulini.org/
Kivulini is a women’s rights organization based in Mwanza, Tanzania. The word ‘kivuli’ means “shed” in Kiswahili. Kivulini has been addressing domestic violence at the community and policy levels through advocacy with community members. The organization has also been building capacity of organizations, religious leaders and local leaders to prevent and respond to domestic violence. Kivulini comes to this partnership with vast experience in mobilizing communities to prevent domestic violence. However in SASA! they see an opportunity to foster greater activism their work. By taking on SASA! Kivulini addresses violence against women and its connection to HIV/IADS, not only domestic violence. Kivulini sees the focus on power and the simple tools for community activists as new additions to their existing work.
IRC Ethiopia
http://www.rescue.org/where/ethiopia
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), Ethiopia is a global non-sectarian voluntary organization committed to working with refugees, refugee host communities, internally displaced persons, disaster-affected and disaster-prone populations and conflict-impacted communities. The IRC Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Program aims to meet the safety, health, psychosocial, and justice needs of women and girls who are survivors of gender-based violence and also strives to empower communities to lead efforts that challenge beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that perpetuate or condone violence against women and girls. IRC Ethiopia has been doing VAW prevention work through community sensitization for a long time now but felt there was need to move towards more holistic VAW work. The SASA! approach is being integrated into existing program activities in five refugee camps: Aw Barre and Kebri Beyah Refugee camps in the Somali region and Sheder, My’Ayni and Shimelba Refugee camps located in the Tigray region.
Highlights of the partnerships so far:
Two SASA! Regional Training workshops have taken place since the inception of the SASA! Rollout Program. The success of these trainings continues to be an inspiration for the ongoing SASA! Program. Today, Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, Government Ministries, faith-based organizations and academia throughout the Horn, East and Southern African Region are steadfast in building the capacity to fight violence against women through use of the SASA! Toolkit and see it as a necessary tool in ensuring prevention in the long run. Below is more information about the Regional Training Workshops.
- The April 2010 SASA! Regional Training workshop introduced partners to SASA! and supported them in understanding the SASA! Start Phase. Read the report here.
- The April 2011 SASA! Regional Training workshop focused on the SASA! Awareness Phase and supported partners in deepening their skills in implementing and monitoring SASA! activities. This report will be available soon
Five Learning Center visits for CARE, IRC, COVAW, WAR and Kivulini were conducted in 2010 where partners interacted with staff and community activists in Kampala to learn more about SASA! implementation.
Click here to see pictures from the 2011 learning center visits.
Four onsite TA visits to COVAW, WAR, TVEP and Kivulini were conducted in 2010 enabling staff to spend time in partners’ communities and provide program and skills building support to them.
Partners completed baseline surveys in their communities to obtain information about the knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors of community members in relation to power, violence against women and HIV/AIDS.
SASA! Partners’ competence assessments were done with all partners to gauge staff knowledge and skills before SASA! implementation. This information will be used for responsive TA to each partner and for tracking growth
Just one and half years into the partnership and partners are approaching violence against women prevention in a more holistic manner by demonstrating positive growth in skills and knowledge to do quality violence against women work. For example, partners are working with more stakeholders than they previously did and are encouraging community members to take the lead in preventing violence against women. By the end of the three years, Raising Voices is optimistic there will be a tremendous increase in the number and quality of community-based primary violence against women prevention programs in the region.
Other SASA! links:
