Here are a few ideas to help companies and businesses “orange” their workplaces during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign from 25 November to 10 December.
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is celebrated on 25 November each year and wearing a white ribbon is the international symbol associated with this day. Red, the symbol for HIV and Aids, has been added to the ribbon to raise awareness of the link between gender violence, HIV and Aids in South Africa.
This event is followed by the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, and culminates in the celebration of Human Rights Day on 10 December. The UN usually announces a global theme for this campaign, which is then locally adapted. This year, the Campaign invites you to “orange your neighbourhood”.
Ideas to help “orange” your workplace
Here are a few ideas on how to “orange” your workplace:
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- Create a display and put up banners and other educational material to promote an awareness of violence against women and how to help prevent this scourge. Have a special poster made that highlights the company’s stand against gender-based, negative attitudes and behaviours, sexual exploitation, harassment and violence in the work place. Emphasise the company’s support of victims of abuse.
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- Encourage employees (men and women) to wear something “orange” and award a small, daily prize (sponsored by the company, of course) to the person with the most interesting “orange” outfit and also at the end of the 16-days, to the most persistent “orange dresser”.
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- Encourage male employees to present their female colleagues with something “orange” each day for sixteen days to show their support. Ideas are a chocolate with orange filling or any other sweet, candy, cake or biscuit wrapped in orange or with an orange wrapper or an “orange-coloured’ piece of fruit or a flower. Let the ladies choose a winner and award a company-sponsored prize for the most innovative “orange” gift offered.
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- Encourage male employees to join the fight against violence. Men have an important role to play in sending out the message that real men do not hurt or abuse their partners and that “a woman’s place is not just in the home or the field, but in schools and offices and boardrooms”, says UN Secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon.
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- Encourage male employees to sign a no-violence against women pledge and to join one the many famous and respected men such as Sir Richard Branson, actor Daniel Craig (James Bond) and others who have joined UN Secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon in pledging support for the fight against gender-based violence.
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- Organise a talk by a local or international specialist or celebrity on gender-based violence, its causes and consequences. Offer company-sponsored refreshments (afterwards) to get employees to attend!
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- Initiate a fund-raising (team-building) event such as a march, festival, concert, sporting event, ball game, etc and donate the money to a charity that helps victims of domestic violence and abuse.
A word to the business community
Although the 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign focuses mainly on violence against women in their homes and communities, violence in the workplace is part and parcel of the big issue, especially in South Africa.
In a paper presented at the 6th South African Disaster Recovery Conference, Graeme Simpson warned companies as early as 1994 that they should “recognise the workplace as a vital point of contact for initiating treatment of violence-related trauma. Whilst such treatment may appear to be reactive, if appropriately developed and administered, it is a pro-active mechanism of empowerment which plays a crucial role in intervening in the cyclical nature of violence in the society and in the workplace”.
Please help your wives, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, sisters and other female loved ones in their ghastly fight for life and dignity!
Sources
Simpson, G. 1994. Business and endemic violence in South Africa: surviving the disaster or managing the transition? Retrieved from: http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php/publications/1825-business-and-endemic-violence-in-south-africa-surviving-the-disaster-or-managing-the-transition.html.
South African violence prevention model and action plan. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/southafrica/SAF_resources_violenceprevmodel.pdf
Take action to orange your day. 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/take-action
What is gender based violence? Retrieved from: http://www.adapt.org.za/adapt%20on%20gbv.pdf