In a country like South Africa which grapples with a high prevalence of gender-based violence, forensic nursing unfortunately remains a largely overlooked specialisation, with little incentive for remuneration. One nurse tells Elna Schütz every flicker of hope a patient carries home is a reminder of why she chose this path.
From anti-apartheid activist to top rated researcher, Professor Rachel Jewkes has spent her career trying to make the world a better place for women. Elri Voigt spoke to her about her journey to South Africa from the United Kingdom and how she became one of the country’s leading researchers on gender-based violence.
Rape Crisis pioneered the first containment counselling service at Cape Town’s inaugural Thuthuzela Care Centre, a model now adopted nationwide. Sue Segar visited staff at the soon to be 50-year-old organisation’s three offices and spoke with a rape survivor who has since become a volunteer at their Khayelitsha branch.
The lack of access to essential healthcare services in rural areas worsens the challenges women face, particularly when it comes to early pregnancy and gender-based violence. Celene Coleman and Hanifa Mahlangu argue for strategies that prioritise the empowerment of rural women through improved access to contraception and mental health services.
The only full-time nurse at the Saartjie Baartman Centre, Sister Leonie Weyers, is not only a caregiver to her patients but also helps them to “feel beautiful” again. Biénne Huisman spent time with her at the shelter situated on gang-war turf in Manenberg.
Former ANC member, now with ActionSA, Kgosi Letlape was recently elected to parliament’s health committee. Biénne Huisman spoke to the past president of the Health Professions Council of SA about leaving the ANC, healthcare in the country, gender-based violence, and the murder of his daughter.
Survivors of sexual assault and gender-based violence (GBV) often require mental healthcare services to deal with the psychological trauma, but these services are often not available in already overburdened shelters and safe houses where resources are limited. Sue Segar visited some shelters and spoke to experts about this unmet need for women and children.
South Africa has notoriously high rates of rape and gender-based violence. Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) – one-stop facilities which provide support for rape and other GBV victims – are making a difference. But 63 TCCs, the current number in operation, is not enough, says two local experts.
Professor Naeemah Abrahams, who heads the SAMRC’s Gender and Health Unit has been working in the field of gender-based violence (GBV) for thirty years. Activism always underpinned her research, which has focused on post-rape care, intimate partner femicide, and the interface between GBV and HIV. Biénne Huisman sat down with her to talk about her work, her feminism, and getting men to interrogate their perceptions of masculinity.
As we look at the year ahead, urgent work remains to build on past successes and to bring the HIV epidemic sustainably under control. Amongst others, we need to address persistent stigma and discrimination, as well as the structural and social factors that put women and girls at increased risk of HIV infection, argues Rachel Toku-Appiah.
Mary Selona, a community activist who heads up the Blood River Advice Centre in Limpopo, is putting women at the centre in her quest for social justice. Whether it is intervening when women are refused PrEP at clinics or in more immediate life-threatening situations relating to gender-based violence, Selona is leading from the front. Ufrieda Ho spoke to her as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
At the start of Women’s month this year, the gang rape of eight women at a mine dump in Krugersdorp made headlines in South Africa and abroad, adding to the country’s blood-curdling statistics of femicide and violence against women. René Sparks argues that the public health sector should play a bigger role in addressing violence against women.
