With some of the highest gender-based violence figures in the world, the SDG 5: Gender Equality is of particularly importance to the South African context. The Bush Hill Cubs of Johannesburg ran an Orange Day to promote this critical SDG. Orange Days are part of the  UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign and is an advocacy project to promote awareness of- and activism against- gender-based violence.  By wearing the colour orange, we indicate our alignment with the values promoted in the UNiTE initiative. To this end, the cubs came dressed in their uniform with an orange item of clothing. Most of them wore orange face masks or orange bandanas tied to their arms. One cub wore an orange sash across his uniform.

Cubs brainstormed about the importance of respecting others and what constitutes respect. In this discussion, cubs were asked to reflect on how each one of them was “different” to the other. We discussed things that were familiar and things that we could find different. The cubs then discussed why it is important to respect these differences.

One of the APSs called out an occupation and the cubs ran onto one side of the field to indicate which gender they associated the occupation with. While many indicated the gender of occupations in alignment with social conventions, it was interesting to see some of them questioning this by either running to the opposite side that most of the cubs went or by standing in the middle of the field. We then had a discussion about why we associated these occupations with different genders and discussed examples of people who had busted the myths of gender and work. We also asked the cubs to do a relay in which they had to pick up increasing numbers of eco bricks to demonstrate the difficulties of balancing different life responsibilities. This game was a symbolic engagement with the theme of the added care work that many women have to juggle in their lives.

We discussed the art of Esther Mahlangu and how she had become a well-known international artist and we built miniature Ndebele homes to celebrate the works of this important female artist. We showed the cubs examples of Ndebele art and asked them to decorate their homes with the artwork.

Studies of gender-based violence have shown that in an overwhelming number of cases the perpetrators of gender-based violence were victims of- and/or perpetrated bullying in their own childhoods (Jewkes et al, 2009; Machisa et al., 2011) . To this end we also discussed bullying: different forms of bullying; how to prevent it; and, what to do if one is a victim of it.

To cement the SDG5 message, we instituted a collection drive for the Frida Hartley women’s shelter in Johannesburg. It would have been ideal to do more hands-on outreach work, but COVID-19 restrictions hampered this. We will deliver the collections before Christmas and will continue with collections into the new year. In keeping with the the principles of the UNiTE campaign, the emphasis here was to reflect on stories of survival and empowerment. We asked the parents to show the cubs the “Hero Woman” stories of the shelter (https://www.fridahartley.org/hero-women). As COVID restrictions are lifted, we intend to expand our outreach to the Frida Hartley women's shelter. 

References:

Jewkes, R., Sikweyiya, Y., Morell, R. and Dunkle, K., 2009: Understanding Men's Health and Use of Violence: Interface of Rape and HIV in South Africa, Medical Research Council Brief, Johannesburg.

Machisa, M., Jewkes, R., Lowe, C. and Rama, K., 2011: The War at Home: Gender-Based Violence Indicator Projects, Gender Links, Johannesburg.