“The GERI workshop was so inspiring. Just to listen to other people’s stories really gave me the realization that all genders suffer in silence. These three days gave me aspiration and made me be more mindful of how you are with your family… The experience I am taking home is to be more mindful, to listen attentively, and also to value others no matter the circumstances. To use my voice. It’s okay to be vulnerable. Nurture yourself, love yourself.”
– Shireen Kriel
“This was the experience of a lifetime. It has taught me that in order to heal you need to find the wound. We were also equipped with tools to deal with the wounds in order to start the healing process.”
– Samantha Adonis
This has been a year of continued deepening and expansion for GERI in South Africa. Two new collaborative projects began this year, both with highly promising results, as outlined below.
Collaborative Initiative between GERI and Chrysalis Academy
In April, GERI spearheaded a new year-long collaborative initiative with Chrysalis Academy in Cape Town, which is one of the premier leadership training academies for young adults in South Africa. This new initiative will deliver the GERI program to nearly 1,000 young people, both within Chrysalis Academy and in surrounding communities in the Western Cape. Monitoring and Evaluation of this initiative is being conducted by researchers at Stellenbosch University.
This exciting collaboration was launched with a strong start in June with GERI facilitators leading 200+ young men at Chrysalis academy through the full GERI process. This included a special and remarkably powerful session with the students and their fathers (or father figures), as they came together to share their hopes and dreams, lived experiences, and to heal together. As our colleagues at the Academy reflected, “Each parent gathering is an opportunity to build and heal families together. Together we are disrupting intergenerational wounds, and discovering new ways of showing up in our relationships with our loved ones and our community.”
We continued in July and August with four additional full GERI workshops for young people, and community leaders. Results have been inspiring, and highly encouraging.
In July, this partnership was joined by Dr. Samantha van Schalkwyk of Stellenbosch University, who will lead the research and evaluation components of this project. Dr. Schalkwyk is Deputy Director and Research Manager at the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ) at Stellenbosch University. AVReQ was founded by its Director, Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, who together with Dr. Schalkwyk launched the first academic research project on GERI in 2015 at the University of the Free State.
AVReQ is an interdisciplinary project that takes an intersectional approach to research and engagement with physical and structural aspects of violence, including its more insidious and symbolic forms of expression that manifest in dynamic ways. The project aims to examine various strategies to “heal the past,” create opportunities for engagement in different restorative practices, and explore new intellectual frontiers and new ways of understanding transgenerational trauma and strategies of redress and healing.
The GERI leaders are gratified that AVReQ researchers at Stellenbosch University have decided to conduct this second phase of academic research on the efficacy of the GERI program.
GERI workshop for the Provincial Government Department of Social Development and Partners
A two-day workshop on gender equity and reconciliation at the Chrysalis Academy in Tokai was hosted by the Provincial Government Department of Social Development (DSD), and Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI). The workshop brought together the local NPO Genderworks, the Chrysalis Academy and the provincial government.
As lead minister for Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the Western Cape, provincial Minister of Social Development, Sharna Fernandez, invited provincial and local government officials together with stakeholders to participate in the workshop from 21 to 22 August 2023.
It was heartwarming to have a strong delegation from the Swartland Municipality, and a big team from DSD led by its Minister Sharna Fernandez.As Minister Fernandez reflected after the first day of the workshop, “It has been an intensive day of learning and awakening a deeper awareness and understanding of positive values like empathy, forgiveness, harmony and honesty. I’m honoured to be among government officials and stakeholders who see the importance of doing work on the inner self and between genders so we can be better humans, better citizens, and better serve communities across the Western Cape.“
We are delighted to share this video of GERI Senior Trainer and Chrysalis Academy CEO Dr. Lucille Meyer interviewing Western Cape Minister of Social Development, Sharna Fernandez. We are grateful to Minister Fernandez for boldly sharing how this workshop touched her and shaped her view of gender healing.
Looking toward 2024, we are excited to continue this deeper and broader application of the GERI program with young people in Cape Town.