If you live in the Durban area and want to stand up for No Violence against Women and Children during the 16 days of activism which runs between the 25th November and 10th December 2012, please help ‘grow’ their Garden of Hope and Healing by collecting plastic bottles which will be transformed into “flowers” – an enduring symbol of rebirth and commemoration – to be “planted” in the specially-created Garden of Hope and Healing at Durban Botanic Gardens for the duration of the 16 Days campaign. Each flower will honour a victim or a survivor of abuse, or be a visual pledge of working towards a world without rape and violence.
Nokuthula Cele - volunteer: Sydenham Community Resource Centre
How can you help?
Garden of Hope and Healing
Project: 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, 2012
25 November – 10 December 2012
Calling for Empty Plastic Bottles!
We want your empty 2 litre cool drink bottles with lids and 2 litre white milk cartons, for a wonderful art project to take place at Botanic Gardens for 16 Days of No Violence against Women and Children!
Please drop off your empty, cleaned, bottles at either of two collection points – the Visitor’s Centre in the Durban Botanic Gardens or at Diakonia Council of Churches in Diakonia Ave in the city’s CBD.
The Garden of Hope and Healing is an innovative collaboration between eThekwini Municipality’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) working with Diakonia Council of Church’s Thursdays in Black Campaign, Sydenham Resource Centre, Durban Botanic Gardens, PRC Men’s Forum and various like-minded NGOs.
The flowers will all be made from waste plastic – sending out a strong recycling message that discarded waste can be transformed into something of beauty and value.
A series of workshops will be hosted by Sydenham Resource Centre ahead of the campaign. There will also be flower-making workshops at Durban Botanic Gardens for the duration of the 16 days campaign. Members of the public are welcome to participate in the flower-making workshops and contribute their flowers to the garden. Workshops for large groups / corporates / NGOs can be run on request.
As part of the project, there will be an exhibition and resource material offering information and support to those affected by violence against women and children, and there will be a programme of discussions, workshops and events to generate an increase level of awareness amongst South Africans relating to the incidence of violence against women and children, how it manifests itself within South African society, the negative impact on these vulnerable groups and to challenge perpetrators of these offences to change their behaviour.
Nomfundo Ngcobo – volunteer: Sydenham Community Resource Centre
The garden will also feature “a Bottle Tree” with hundreds of messages sealed in tiny glass bottles, from the PRC Men’s Forum, and there will be a symbolic “Washing Line” with black garments – paying tribute toThursdays in Black, a programme run by Diakonia Council of Churches to encourage men and women to wear black every Thursday to raise awareness around issues of gender justice, violence against women and corrective rape.
For more information about the campaign, contact Illa Thompson on illa@pubmat.co.za / 031 2011 638. For more information about the flower-making workshops, contact Dawn or Merle from the Sydenham Community Resource Centre on 031 207 4393.
