19 Nov 2015

Men and Boys for Gender Equality (MBGE) recently drilled both Centre Chiefs and Township Rollers players on Gender Based Violence (GBV) in a two day workshop.

MBGE team leader Desmond Dunga told BOPA after the workshop that their intention is to train all premier league teams on GBV. He said they guided the players on how to deal with influence from social media.

He said that they advised them to always see themselves as respectable and bankable brands with the latitude to work meaningfully with various stakeholders and platforms. He said the objective of the workshop was to show players that they can be part of solutions to GBV.

The workshop which was themed Sport for Social Change, covered topics such as understanding gender, power and health inter-linkages, mitigating GBV, as well as sport and gender. Former Zebras player Dipsy Selolwane welcomed the MBGE initiative, saying that players are sometimes affected by GBV.

“As players we make mistakes, we can only grow and learn from the slip-ups and challenges we go through,” he said.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), gender-based violence undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence.

The UN organ says victims of violence can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, and even death.

The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Edwin Batshu said in 2013 that a study commissioned by government and non-governmental organisation, Gender Links, revealed that the prevalence of violence against women stood at 67 per cent in Botswana. Ends