LOOK out for LifeLine Zululand members as they promote the ‘Thursdays in Black’ campaign which is part of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women drive from 25 November to 16 December.
The organisation will raise awareness against intimate partner violence, by being visible and distributing buttons and information pamphlets at the traffic light intersection between Albizia Avenue (turn-off to the police station) and East Central Arterial (airport road) in Richards Bay.
‘LifeLine is encouraging individuals and businesses in the community to wear black every Thursday going forward to create 365 days of no violence,’ said LifeLine Director Michelle Jewlal.
‘We challenge all locals to take a stand towards a world without rape and violence.’
Dark roots
The Thursdays in Black campaign has its roots in the 1970s protests by Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina.
These women began wearing black sashes in honour of their friends and family members who were being raped, abused and trafficked.
They would gather every Thursday in silence to protest the loss of loved ones under the military dictatorship, with the aim of raising the government’s awareness that these acts of violence were happening in their homeland.
Since then other groups developed, including women who wanted to express outrage at the rape-death camps in war-torn Bosnia.
The campaign was launched in South Africa by the Diakonia Council of Churches in the 1980s as a peaceful way of saying: ‘I support the human rights of women to live in a world without violence, rape and fear’.
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