Abstract
The fight against gender-based violence (GBV) requires the participation of as many society stakeholders as possible, including the church. Gender-based violence has become a pandemic in South Africa. The township of Soshanguve where InnerCHANGE, a missional team, serves is just a microcosm of this alarming reality. This research uses the grounded theology methodology to design a curriculum to empower teenagers and the youth to become people of peace. These are people who commit to act non-violently in all circumstances and to call out violence as a society destroyer. This study stresses that perpetrators and enablers of GBV are the causes of the pandemic. The perpetrators are known to be mostly men. The enablers are the situation of the normalisation of violence in local communities, a negative understanding of power and a lack of participation from the church in fighting against GBV. This study focuses on enablers for the development of people of peace. The aim for InnerCHANGE was to participate in this fight against GBV in teaching teenagers and the youth to see violence as abnormal, to understand power as a resource to serve others and to actively participate in this fight against GBV through their everyday choices of acting non-violently and calling out violent acts. The research concludes that GBV seems to be intergenerational in our local community. And, it will take preventive measures such as the education of teenagers and the youth to break such a normalised abuse and build peaceful communities where violence will not be tolerated.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is located in the field of missiology. It is inspired by practical theology, sociology, psychology and journalism to design a curriculum that intends to develop the youth and teenagers as people of peace.
Highlights
Gender-based violence (GBV) is ‘experienced by one-third of women globally’ (Amusa, Bengesai & Khan 2020:1)
The National Development Plan (NDP) of South Africa recognises that GBV ‘is unacceptably high with South Africa having the highest rates of violence against girls and women in the world’ (Yamile 2020:2)
InnerCHANGE applied the theology of experience by designing a curriculum that could empower teenagers and the youth to fight against GBV as people of peace
Summary
Gender-based violence (GBV) is ‘experienced by one-third of women globally’ (Amusa, Bengesai & Khan 2020:1). InnerCHANGE applied the theology of experience by designing a curriculum that could empower teenagers and the youth to fight against GBV as people of peace. The latter are those who commit to act non-violently in all circumstances and to call out any acts of violence. The perpetrators are mostly men, whereas the enablers are the realities of the normalisation of violence in our local communities, a negative understanding of power and a lack of participation of the church in fighting this pandemic It tries to answer this question: how can InnerCHANGE participate in empowering the youth and teenagers in fighting against GBV? The designing process of this curriculum took some ethical considerations
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