Gender Links has been named winner of the Mail and Guardian 2016 Investing in the Future Awards for Job Creation and Enterprise Development. The awards, announced on 25 November at the start of the Sixteen Days of Activism campaign, recognise “business as a force for good.” GL’s winning entry is its Empower Women, End Violence programme, rebranded during the Sixteen Days as the Sunrise Campaign. The pilot project targeted 1300 survivors of gender violence in ten SADC countries who, with the support of 100 Centres of Excellence for Gender in Local Government, underwent a unique entrepreneurship training and life skills training programme. The women enhanced their income by 60%; and now experience 85% less violence. GL estimates that it costs just R15,000 or $1000 to take women through this life changing programme that transforms abuse to agency; despair to hope.
“We are thrilled to receive the award, that is a tribute to the resilience of women in our region,” said GL CEO Colleen Lowe Morna. “We pledge during this Sixteen Days to redouble our efforts, with the help of our sponsors and people of goodwill, to reach at least one thousand more women in 2017. We firmly believe that there is a new dawn out there; that community by community; home by home we can end gender violence. This is what our Constitutions and the basic tenets of human rights promise. So let’s let the light shine! ”