See also:

• Communities stopping sexual violence
  (Southern Metropolitan Local Council media release, 13/11/97)
• Sinamandla okuvimbela Re ya mamella - The power of resilience preventing sexual violence in southern Johannesburg
  (Southern Metropolitan Local Council in partnership with CIETafrica, Project update no.1 January 1998)
• Facts Behind the Rape Headlines: The Women's Voice
  (CIETafrica, 29/5/98)
• Gang Rape: Not Just Another Headline
  (CIETafrica, 24/5/98)
• Finding The Facts About Jo'burg Rape
  (CIETafrica, 27/5/98)

The aim is to help residents of Soweto and other parts of Johannesburg's South find community-led solutions to the problem of sexual abuse. The project intends to increase the horizontal and vertical information flow on the nature and scale of sexual violence, as well as ways to prevent it.

In 1997 the residents of Johannesburg's South were asked to define a vision for their community. Out of seven areas, five identified "safety" as the biggest issue. In the remaining two safety was mentioned second, after health and economic development respectively.

CIET's sexual violence prevention programme was launched with an information sharing session in Soweto in November 1997. The session was attended by close to 100 participants, representing more than 30 non-government organisations and service providers, including the South African Police Services, the Department of Justice, Gauteng Network on Violence Against Women and various other women's groups. Instrument design and piloting took place in January-February 1998. The field data collection phase is currently in progress involving household questionnaires (women's), men's questionnaire, key informant interviews and focus groups.

The project is funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre. The information system will be based in the Health and Social Development Cluster of the area's local authority, the Social Metropolitan Local Council (SMLC).