Working with Young Women and Girls

This #InternationalWomensMonth I am highlighting women, organisations and movements that tackle gender-based violence and gender justice at the local and community level. Nomfundo Eland is the Executive Director of Emthonjeni Counselling and Training and works with young women and girls.

'Emthonjeni works with other organisations who do similar work,' explained Nomfundo, 'because I believe that you can't do this work in isolation. We need each other as different entities that contribute different points of healing to make sure that a young woman is looked after and develops into someone that is striving and taking up space and living their dreams beyond what we could necessarily do, and in a life in which she can participate fully with all the freedoms, with all the rights that she has, and also feel safe to do so.'

Emthonjeni was launched in 2010 and started, says Nomfundo, because they were seeing the number of HIV infections rising among young women. 'We started working with adolescent girls and young women... from primary school so kids can understand when things are done to them and their bodies that are not right. We started by giving menstrual hygiene talks and doing anti-period poverty campaigns. We would ask the girls when their first period was and if they had gotten it already, we'd ask who do you trust to tell that you're having your period. This for us would be an indication of whether the girl has a support system or not.'

Nomfundo says that speaking about period poverty was a gateway into more serious topics. 'We wouldn't be able to get to gender-based violence or domestic violence if we did not start with topics such as general menstrual hygiene, because that is something you would find: that girls at that particular age have experienced gender-based violence. And then we begin support from there and into high school.'

To watch the episode with Nomfundo, see

To learn more about Emthonjeni and their work with girls, see: https://www.emthonjeni.org/

*Lenina Rassool is a journalist, activist and multimedia producer in Cape Town, South Africa, with a focus on social justice, gender-based violence, civic engagement and mental health. To see more of my work or contact me, see https://leninarassool.wixsite.com/mysite