Anene Booysen’s brutal rape and murder has put the plight of women in SA in the spotlight. The statistics aren’t pretty and we’ve heard them a lot over the last week: every four minutes someone in SA is raped; an estimated 1-million rapes take place annually; and, SA is the number 1 ‘rape capital’ in the world. This points to our country’s collective shame.
FunDza’s mission is to get young people to read… by creating authentic South African stories – stories that are true-to-life and gritty, stories that are funny or ironic, stories that reflect our readers’ lives, stories that resonate and pull at our heart-strings, stories that inspire and give hope.
As a result, our stories cannot ignore abuse against women and children. We’ve run stories challenging gender stereotypes and homophobia, stories dealing with abuse – in the home and at school, stories exposing the danger that many women face, simply because of their gender… These stories have been written by professional men and women writers, and by our young readers themselves.
We believe that fiction is a powerful method of getting readers to see life from different points of view, to explore what its like to be in someone else’s skin. Through our stories, we hope to broaden our readers’ worldviews, and help each one develop a deeper understanding of themselves… Ultimately, we hope that this impacts on behaviour, attitudes and choices such that our country grows generations of educated, engaged, empowered and empathetic citizens and future leaders.
Today the FunDza team stands in support of the One Billion Rising campaign. We say that violence against women and children must stop. We say No to rape; No to emotional, physical and mental abuse. We stand in support of creating a non-sexist, non-racist, non-discriminatory South Africa, Africa and world.