Community of Safety and Care
By Peta Wolpe
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| Braving the icy Atlantic is best done together |
I remember a colloquium I organised in 2012 on women in the struggle. One of the speakers said that violence against women had increased since democracy. I remember being shocked.
I remember the work I have done on gender and energy
poverty, which affects people who have no access to safe energy such as
electricity, or who cannot afford to use it once connected to the grid. One
woman we interviewed told us that the solar lights installed outside her shack
in the informal settlement meant they could see if someone was coming to attack
them. Another said that having no toilet in their home meant that the women,
and especially their girl children, were not safe going out to the toilets at
night.
I remember running a workshop and listening to women talk
about their experiences of gender-based violence and femicide, and the horror
and fear they live under. And I wonder what has happened to us and why our
rates of GBV are so high. Has violence become the answer to deepening poverty
and inequality? Has the feminist agenda failed?
I have been remembering the women’s march of 1956, when the women
marched peacefully against the extension of the apartheid pass laws to Black
women. What an amazing community of strength, of women.
I wonder where that sense of community, of safety and care for others, has gone. Is perhaps part of the answer about rekindling and rebuilding kindness and mindfulness and care for others.
Then I think of the community of swimmers, walkers and cyclists who have come together this month for Blocktober. I thank them for their support, their warmth and care, and their willingness to show up.
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| Swimmers creating a community of safety and care in solidarity with survivors of GBV |
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| Swimmers joined from across the glove including in Lake Geneva's Nage Glacial swim. |
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| Blocktober supporters sharing a community of safety and care in 2025 at the Blockhouse Key links:
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