This year’s International 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign will be marked at a time the world retreated inside homes due to the lockdown measures introduced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Plot Mhako with excerpts from TAMBA AFRICA

Tamba Africa is Zimbabwe’s first African Storytelling & Social Circus. Arts & African culture are our social intervention tools to empower young people from the margins.

Over the past 10 months there was a huge increase cases of Domestic Violence Against Women in Zimbabwe and this has been the trend in many other countries.

This year, Tamba Africa Social Circus’ 16 Days of ARTIVISM Against Gender-Based Violence campaign continues to call for the elimination of all forms of violence, harassment and abuse, but with a dedicated focus on young people with disabilities whose lives and livelihoods have been acutely impacted by neglect, abuse and increased marginalization.

“As we take the lead from the global call to  “UNiTe”, the NYAKASIKANA all female mixed ability troupe under Tamba Africa Social Circus has been doing outreach activities amongst young people from the community of persons with disabilities to understand their needs, perspectives and priorities when it comes to awareness, resource mobilization and access to services in order to combat harassment, abuse and gender-based violence in their community.”

Inspired by and in support of the 2020 global theme  “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect“, Tamba Africa has planned different events and activities to amplify this call for action to bridge funding gaps, ensure essential services for survivors of abuse and violence, raise awareness for prevention, and collect data that can improve services for not only for women and girls but especially for persons with disabilities.

As part of the campaign Tamba Africa will host a number of activities under the theme 16 Days of Artivism and most significantly stage the “Unbreakable Woman” mixed ability performance (i.e. including artists with disability).

The GBV awareness and advocacy production which will be performed live by NYAKASIKANA on 4 December 2020 at Theatre in the Park.