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The Justice Desk in South Africa, educates, trains, advocates for and equips youth, vulnerable groups, civil society, and governments in Human Rights, justice and advocacy. They work primarily in township areas and vulnerable communities, empowering and equipping local people with the necessary skills and platforms to lead their own change.
Currently, ERFA funds and supports two projects within The Justice Desk. The Mbokodo Club project and The Ntsika yeThemba Project, both in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Mbokodo project in South Africa is an advocacy project that aims to empower survivors of rape and GBV to promote self-awareness, provide mental health support and educate them to lead their own change. It targets girls aged between 10-19 years. The beneficiaries are empowered and equiped to become human rights champions and leaders within their own communities.
This project based in Cape Town, South Africa, provides empowering education for young boys from underserved communities who do not have positive male role models and are at high risk of joining gangs and following a path that leads to violence and GBV with little to no prospects.
A core focus of this program is to empower young boys and men to assist in defending the rights of women in in their communities, to respect and understand consent, and to assist in building safer communities and be supported to lead their own positive change. The project is organized such that positive local role models will be trained and paired up with each youth. Their role will be to work with, support and encourage 30 young boys and men to become positive role models in their community. Safe spaces will be created, and they will be taught through various modules, to respect one another, respect women, understand what consent means, and learn that with the right guidance they can have a positive future.
The project will employ outdoor adventure-based education as a tool to allow young people to develop skills, challenge beliefs and deepen relationships in the outdoors. Dialogue sessions, workshops, and trainings will be used to help challenge toxic masculine standards and cultures of violence the boys are exposed to.
Please visit The Justice Desk website to learn more
