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Bus taking women's issues across SA
March 10, 2006 -By Bhavna Sookha
A group of campaigners will be roughing it out for the next few weeks as they travel via bus spreading the message of non-violence against women and children around the country. more>>
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Press release - 06 March 2006
GET ON THE BUS - STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN CAMPAIGN

Take your voice to Parliament by joining us on 8 March, International Women's Day, for the launch of a national bus campaign challenging violence against women and children. The campaign, which unites fortyorganisations around the country, has three main aims:

• To promote communities' awareness of women's rights as set out in the Domestic Violence Act, the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, the Maintenance Act and the Firearms Control Act;
• To collect petitions calling on both Parliament and the
  Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to consult with civil society around the finalisation and enactment of the Sexual Offences Bill; and
• To take women and children's voices to parliament by recording their concerns and experiences of violence.

The bus departs from Constitution Hill on 8 March and reaches the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town on 10 April. Along the way it will travel through all nine of South Africa's provinces, stopping to run workshops, share information, distribute posters and pamphlets and record what communities have to say around how government departments could better implement laws and policy relevant to rape and domestic violence. This information, along with the petitions, will be handed over to parliamentarians on 10 April.

Please join us in wishing the bus and its passengers well as they starttheir journey around the country to parliament. The launch will featurean exhibition of the pamphlets and posters that will be distributed en route, photographs from the Fatherhood Project run by the Human Sciences Research Council, and a selection of digital stories compiled by Engender Health/Men as Partners. Our guest speaker will be musician and singer Andile Carelse, who also heads up the Open Disclosure Foundation which encourages young women and men to speak out against sexual violence.

Just some of the organisations and networks supporting the bus campaign include the National Working Group on the Sexual Offences Bill, the Western Cape, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Networks on Violence Against Women, Cape Town Rape Crisis Trust, Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme, Thusanang Advice Centre and Women'sNet. A website providing daily updates around the campaign will also be launched.

Date: Wednesday 8 March 2006, International Women's Day
Time: 9:30 for 10:00
Venue: The Conference Room, Constitution Hill corner Kotze and Hospital Street. (Drive through the tunnel off Kotze Street to access parking)

Please RSVP to Towera Sichinga .

Contact: Lisa Vetten, CSVR (011 403-5650)