Terri Dunbar-Curran
WHEN a group of schoolgirls admitted they didn’t really feel safe at home, in their community or even at school, Rock Girl stepped in to help them find a voice and a place to feel safe again.
Founder and human rights lawyer, India Baird, explains that Rock Girl was created to inspire girls and women to initiate projects and be their own agents of change in their communities. The initiative inspired by the Grade 6 girls from Red River Primary School in Manenberg is called Safe Spaces and involves the installation of benches in various areas.
“Many other countries are looking to South Africa as a model for how to deal with violence,” says Baird. “Despite that, violence in the country has actually increased over the past 10 years. This project is about creating a change in our culture.”
The statistics Rock Girl uses as a foundation for this project are alarming. They reveal that the Western Cape has one of the highest incidences of sexual violence against girls and women in the country.
Approximately 40 percent of reported rapes and attempted rapes in South Africa involve girls under the age of 17 – that’s two out of every five victims.
Fired up by that reality, Baird and the Rock Girl team met with the girls to help give them their own safe space at school. “They wrote letters to their principal and we helped them to speak out and get their voices heard. They didn’t want to feel threatened at school.”
Baird says that last year’s World Cup demonstrated that it is possible to create a safe area, like the stadiums were. “So why can’t we have pockets of safety all over our communities?”
A brief was sent out to artists to come up with designs for beautiful and functional benches which would inspire people to get involved in the cause.
“This is a way of taking back our spaces. We’re going to put benches in public areas where people wait for taxis or sit in parks. We really want to raise awareness about organisations who are already helping the cause.”
The first bench, unveiled at the Design Indaba this year, was designed by Tim Lewis and Lovell Friedman and is now a permanent fixture at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).
Each bench will have a sister bench in another community and they will include a toll-free number where callers can get information about the project and community organisations, as well as listen to the stories of those affected by violence. The idea is for the women and girls in each community to design the benches themselves. The CTICC bench will be paired with one in Khayelitsha.
“You’ll find the benches in surprising places,” says Baird. “We can take areas back, and we can create beautiful safe spaces in our communities.”
Among others, Table Mountain National Park is keen to be involved.
“They say we hear so much about violence on the mountains, but the violence in communities every day is often so much more serious,” says Baird.
The Freeworld Design Centre also came on board by donating paint and expertise to create a mural to accompany the Red River Primary bench which was installed in June. The next bench will be unveiled at the centre on August 4 with plans for its partner to be placed at the Grassroot Soccer Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha.
Corporates are invited to donate funds or sponsor benches at their premises or in the broader community. “Violence is not limited to poor communities. It’s a problem across the board. There are places we feel safe and places we don’t, so what can we do to change this?
“We need to make this part of our everyday conversation.”
They hope to have the first 10 benches installed by Women’s Day, but judging by the reaction they have had so far, it could go a lot further than that. “We’d love to start a deluge across the country,” says Baird. “We’re helping women become stronger and change their communities.”
The event on August 4 at 5pm at Freeworld Design Centre will include the unveiling of the bench, an exhibition of photographs from Life and Soul: Portraits of Women Who Move South Africa taken by Rock Girl co-founder Karina Turok, a soccer match between girls from the Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha, a human chain across the Waterkant Street pedestrian bridge and an auction of soccer balls decorated by creatives Conrad Botes, Zapiro, Lauren Beukes and others.
l See www.rockgirlsa.org