16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children Don't look away, act against abuse

The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children is campaign aimed to make people aware of the negative impact of violence on women and children and to act against abuse.
 
What can you do?

•Support the campaign by wearing the white ribbon during the 16-day period: A white ribbon is a symbol of peace and symbolises the commitment of the wearer to never commit or condone violence against women and children.

•Participate in the various 16 Days of Activism events and activities:

•Volunteer in support of NGOs and community groups who support abused women and children: Many organisations need assistance from the public. You can volunteer your time and make a contribution to the work of institutions. Help plant a garden at a shelter, etc….Use your skills and knowledge to help the victims of abuse.

•Donations: any form of donation, money, food, cloths and the organizations that are helping the woman and children.

•Speak out against woman and child abuse. Encourage silent female victims to talk about abuse and ensure that they get help. Report child abuse to the police. Encourage children to report bully behaviour to school authorities. Men and boys are encouraged to talk about abuse and actively discourage abusive behaviour.

•Join community policing forums (CPFs). 

•Seek help if you are emotionally, physically or sexually abusive to your partner and/or children. Call the Stop Gender Based Violence helpline (0800 150 150).Talk to friends, relatives and colleagues to take a stand against abuse of women and children. Try and understand how your own attitudes and actions might perpetuate sexism and violence. 

Together, let us take actions to support the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign.

Don't look away, act against abuse 

Cunt invasion (RAPE) by K8 Kamunde

I believed in my friends when I gave them this one to read and critique. Being very passionate about women issues, I could simply not ignore this very important part of the torture women got through.

I was extremely confident in my work when I submitted it for review, but the comments did not come without the, 'why's' and the 'at least make it polite' in quotes! They asked me to make RAPE POLITE? I was not baffled by that, and nope, these comments came from my fellow women! I was not in the least surprised...it only defined one work as Inga Muscio puts it; CUNT HATRED! 

So, in my bid to make my stand and thoughts on rape very clear, I opted not to act in the affirmative but let my feelings speak, for all the women of the world and I. For our lovely cunts! Well, it's time for 'RAPE!'

Mmmhhh? Don’t look at me that way, I know men also get raped, but the women experience it more and since I am one of them, I will speak on their behalf!

I define rape as the act of stripping the power in a woman by a powerless man… Rape rings danger bells to any woman that walks around on her own at night…Rape is committed by men who have not began exercising their powerlessness thus leading them to re-discovering new ways to do that by inserting their broomsticks in the cunts of innocent women/girls and children. I am not sorry if you think I am rude! And drop the crap about women’s dressing that leads to their being raped…haven’t we all been there, done that?

Rape is a slap of silence as has been and continues to be with some urban and most women from the grass roots.

It shuts you out of the world and its happenings and one retreats to their cocoons to hide the anger, pain, torture, resentment and all! Rape is a constant reminder that I, the woman and the special world I call ‘cunt’ is never safe. Would I opt to then chop it off (of course not to sell it to some crazy baboons that think they can come up with some sick HIV antidote) and eliminate all these troubles of having my sexuality invaded by some dick of a man? Never, not in a hundred thousand years Honey! I am a woman who has a sexy, beautiful cunt, that  I am extremely proud of! Got that?

Rape is an ape minus R.

My best friend Kendi was abducted by five men as she negotiated a corner on her way home from work. They took her to a forest several miles away from home and raped her in turns. As if that was not gory enough, they gouged her eyes out and buried them a few metres away from the rape scene, leaving her for the dead. They never stole anything from her…someone, please convince me that this bastards were human because I am thinking otherwise. Their inhuman hood should be butchered and roasted in their full view!

My dear friend Kendi made it, but has never gotten over the torture ten years later. She knew the men only too well since they were her next door neighbors that seemed really friendly for a period of over two years. She was too bitter with life, with the fact that being a woman alone subjected her to gang rape, that she contemplated suicide severally.

We have been her pillar of support…we have proven that women that undergo rape can keep existing and beat all odds…we have shared our pain and experiences…we have many times cried and sought solace in each other’s handkerchiefs, arms and shoulders, not forgetting the cups of coffee we constantly chat over.

Rape is a monster that only knows best how it deprives women of the power to speak out, the power to be themselves. Rape graduates women to feeling useless, hating their cunts, wallowing in alcohol and drugs to seek help silently, degrading the very reasons they exist, depression and self pity. Rape does not only happen to the daughter of your grandmother’s third class cousin who died in the 1890’s! Rape does not happen to women we know rarely about, it happened to she and I…it is bound to happen to you too if it has not.

Rape is an issue that no religious clerics stand to condemn…they would never make time to, because rape is just okay while being gay is NOT! None of them have held demonstrations to put the government to task in setting up policies that will ensure that all those rapists out there, walking scot free, bribing their way out of jails, raping the community out of life and making out of court settlements with victims and their families are properly castrated or locked up for life!

But NOOOOOO! Prison nowadays is heaven on earth, a land of no struggle. They have access to everything from education (well, this is ok), to frequent visits by their families when they get to negotiate on when and how sex will be smuggled in prisons, to fashion shows, gospel extravaganzas and so on. They have been given a chance to watch television, look at all those beautiful women in those electric boxes and tempt the rapists among them (as well as recruit potential ones) to plot their next rape encounters on their release! What a pity?

How hypothetical could this get? How real can this be? What about the media? Well, they try…but in only bringing the stories to light and doing shoddy interviews. After that the rape news item is done, they find the mention okay and every similar story goes by just like that. It’s ignored like nothing mega really took place!

Media is powerful; it can effectively engage the general public in a ‘help stop rape’ campaign…maybe it could be an issue some creative but passionate journalists would want to look into.

Wangu Kanja on the other hand is doing the best she can…I commend her efforts and especially in using her personal experience in the hands of rapists to touch people’s lives in a very special way…she touched the victim in me! She is one of the women who I have known to be very strong willed in terms of taking the ‘rape’ talk beyond the shock on the screens at news hour!

 It is a tough decision to make when it comes to disclosing that one has been raped in their lives and risk being looked at by fellow women as a slut/whore whose duty is to incite men to eroticism and get rape for a reward…to be perceived by men as ‘used rags’ that no man should dare inching closer to…a community that is so keen on blaming the raped and not the rapist!!!

Yet again, how sad?

Why do we have all these sponsored cancer, deaf, eye walks but no one had bothered to speak out for the scores of women raped on an hourly basis? Please, let’s stop this hypocrisy guys…it is plain and downright disgusting.

To the Nairobi Women's Hospital, KUDOS for the good job you are doing in helping women that have gone through rape incidents to keep existing, keep healthy both physically and emotionally, but is that all?

Truth is, through our silence in speaking against rape, we have encouraged the vice, women and girls that keep getting raped have boarded the ‘silence bus’. We will always get our statistics wrong, because very few are willing to speak out. We will encourage the perverts and sick broomsticks to do their thing, and walk home satisfied at their achievements in striping the people we are. Reducing our productivity…griping us with fear and preventing us from attaining our full potential.

I challenge you and I. I was raped, she was about to get raped, You have not yet been raped, but it is not an assurance you will not be! Don’t say that because it never happened to you then it’s not in your business to do anything. You are a woman and in as much as the unfortunate newborns are welcomed into the world by getting abused, you are susceptible to RAPE.

This vice has to be tackled head on, whether we like it or not!

The time is now, kina dada, mama na wasichana na tuungane kuangamiza kidonda hiki katika jamii!