Activists in the South West Activists Network, talked with young women in townships of the south west Johannesburg over August to November 2019. Young women were asked to say what challenges they faced as young women living in the townships.

Young women talked about how poverty and unemployment affected them, the difficulties of finding work or creating their own business.

While they pointed to not having money and resources as a problem, they also talked about the how the disrespect and pressure within families, from teachers and friends. They say that they are pushed in directions that lead to destruction in their life.

They said they are not safe, even in their own backyards from violent attacks. Often this is fuelled by alcohol and drugs. Mostly, it arises from the traditional attitude of men, which is that that women are their properties and they can do whatever they want with them.

These conditions make young women very unsafe. They are easily pressured or mislead into unsafe sex. Pregnancy at an early age is a big a crisis in the township. Worse still, many young women contract HIV because young men resist using condoms.

Christian Aid first began working in South Africa in the 1950s with ‘clandestine’ grants, given to Black community programmes to signal support and solidarity. Over the next 60-70 years the programme evolved in different ways, responding both to shifts within South Africa and within the organisation.

The final stage of this journey was for Christian Aid, along with other European members of the ACT Alliance, and Southern African civil society organisations to establish ACT Ubumbano, a solidarity hub fighting for economic, environmental and gender justice. Throughout its long history solidarity was a key value in the programme, but what this meant in practice shifted as needs changed.

This review explores key themes in Christian Aid’s engagement in South Africa, noting in particular the depth of political analysis and strength of national partners in South Africa, and how this shaped the type of relationships and contribution that Christian Aid was able to make in this context. This was not a one-way process as our partners also influenced Christian Aid’s thinking and practice.

Download Full Review

ACT Ubumbano is a network of Southern African and European organisations working for economic, gender and environmental justice. It does this through facilitating critical reflection on social justice practice, listening to the voices of those who are most affected by injustice, and supporting innovative and collaborative solidarity initiatives that address unjust power relations globally.

ACT Ubumbano sought the services of a consultant to facilitate its one day extended task team meeting as part of a process it has embarked on of setting up a Gender and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) task team. The task team is aimed at supporting the Alliance to develop a strategy and vision for gender justice for its collective work. It is also aimed at ensuring continuous support for meaningful partner and community led gender justice and SRHR initiatives with a key focus on intersectionality of gender, climate, and economic justice.

The extended task team meeting took place on the 14 February 2019 and it brought together participants from 6 different countries, namely Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe, including members of the Gender Task-Team and nominated individuals.

Download Report

This resource showcases the content, process and concrete outcomes of the Solidarity Platform meeting. Its purpose is to document the critical learnings that emerged, and to offer a framework for the thinking and doing of solidarity in transformative ways. It is hoped the resource will support the ongoing reflective practice of ACT Alliance partner organisations, as well as contribute to knowledge generation and action on solidarity building for social justice more broadly.

Download