
Our Christmas Wishes
A Heart-warming Christmas and a positive New Year from all of us at Victory for Equality!
May we join together again in 2018 to work towards a more Equal and Merry Christmas for everyone around the globe.
A Heart-warming Christmas and a positive New Year from all of us at Victory for Equality!
May we join together again in 2018 to work towards a more Equal and Merry Christmas for everyone around the globe.
An interview with Caroline Dusée, rebel with a cause.
A story about philanthropy, it’s dark side but above all, equality.
For erveryone.
See the original publication about the interview and Caroline Dusée: De Dikke Blauwe
Any questions regarding the interview? Do not hesitate to contact us.
Victory for Equality envisages a world in which every human being, regardless of their race, class, gender, religion and ethnical background can join and collaborate together based upon equal beliefs, rights and freedom. We strive to unite women and men, by not only empowering women, but by empowering women and men together.
The mission of Victory for Equality is to create awareness about Gender Inequality and the possibilities for Gender Reconciliation. Both among people in local communities strongly affected by gender injustice, as well as people around the globe, to raise more consciousness about this issue.
Victory for Equality’s current work focuses on carrying out Gender Reconciliation programs in South Africa and Europe. In South Africa we are active in Johannesburg and Cape Town. A dozen of Gender Reconciliation programs have been carried out over the last years in South Africa. Victory for Equality is now specifically focusing on the areas where the rate of violence is the highest and the population is the most neglected by the government.
In the meantime we are focusing on strengthening our ties in Europe where we are setting up and want to implement more Gender Reconciliation Programs. We recently set up a Gender Reconciliation Program in London for instance.
Not only in Africa, but worldwide, also in Europe, the gender gap is still visible (and invisible) in every country. Our first Gender programs have just been implemented in Europe. In the labor market, in education and on a political level, there are still less women in top positions and women still earn less than men.
Invisible is the huge amount of domestic violence, emotional and physical abuse inflicted between both genders. (as well men towards women as women towards men).
Mainstream masculinities across the world promote physical and emotional toughness in men, which can make it extremely difficult for men to live fulfilled, happy lives. They can also cause men to experience severe internal and external conflicts. The imperative is therefore to transform underlying gender injustice and unequal power dynamics so as to establish healthy, harmonious relations between the sexes.
South Africa’s 350-year history of slavery, imperialism, colonialism, and apartheid has fueled social inequality, and specifically racial and gender inequalities. The prevalence of rape in the country, as a particular type of sexual and gender-based violence, is one of the highest in the world. A rape reportedly occurs every 35 seconds. The trafficking of women and children is also on the rise in Southern Africa. The right to own property for women is still neglected on a large scale. Besides all this, there has been a pandemic of ‘corrective rape’ violations against lesbian women.
Men in South Africa also suffer the negative impacts of patriarchy and the associated trauma of gender injustice and imbalance. Although most violence against women is perpetrated by men, the majority of male violence is committed against other men. Therefore we also focus on men- to men reconciliation and women to women. Groups that are mostly affected by traditional and sometimes harmful gender- belief systems over generations.
Today’s gender activism focuses mainly on protecting and empowering women. Gender Reconciliation goes beyond this crucial work. To tackle the root of the problem.
It differs from other gender programs because it brings women and men (of all sexual orientations), and all identities, together for reconciliation.
Our programs bring women and men together, and offer them a platform so we carry out our truth- telling and exercises which engage both men and women in interactive practises and dialogues to address issues rarely discussed aloud. Ranging from physical and emotional abuse, sexual violence, power relations and taboo topics.
The first evaluations of the programs show a positive impact on healing, self-esteem, understanding of each other and reconciliation. Also a huge snow ball effect has occurred, since participants take their new findings into their own communities and family lives.
The Gender Reconciliation work has taken place in diverse venues ranging from prisons to schools, universities, religious communities, therapeutic networks, activist organizations, NGO’s and for Members of Parliament.
A specific Gender Reconciliation forum takes three days and is lead by trained facilitators. An everyday expanding Gender Reconciliation Community has been set up, under guidance from facilitators where people can connect with each other and look for guidance before and after the programs have taken place.
Looking back at Victory for Equality’s history we have always been working with suppressed and neglected groups since its inception in 2006. It began with our first project for indigenous people and education in the Andes in Peru. Afterwards it was followed by a rapid development with our other first big South American project in Ecuador: a program ran and developed by the local people, against domestic violence on the island of Limones. Always established by a comprehensive research prior. With incredible results, improving more than over hundreds of women’s lives.
After moving to Tanzania, the foundation’s work started switching from solely women support- and empowerment projects to the implementation of projects for both women and men.
After years of fundamental research in the Lake Area of the Victoria region, we started working closely together with the local Tanzanian youth to implement our first projects in that region. Not only to support girls and women, but also to involve boys and men equally in the projects. We began outreach programs in local schools in Tanzania. These programs brought boys and girls together in groups to discuss and have a dialogue regarding gender related topics. The results and evaluations of the programs by the youth themselves were proven so positive that they started to expand on their own.
To move forward and further develop on this topic, we were looking for new cornerstones, and found those in South Africa. There we built strong collaborations with several institutions and local partners that are actively specializing in this field. A new perspective and support- model for the Foundation was born. New programs have been set up: Gender Reconciliation Programs.