In 1998, South Africa signed on to an international awareness drive called the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. Almost 20 years later, we’re still going strong.

The annual campaign – which started on November 25 and ends on Human Rights Day (December 10) – has several goals, according to the government:

• To encourage all South Africans to help eradicate violence against women and children
• To combine technology, social media, the arts, journalism, religion, culture, business and activism in a bid to highlight the many ways in which violence devastates women and children
• To encourage society to acknowledge that violence against women and children is a social, rather than governmental, problem
• To encourage collective responsibility within communities to tackle violence against women and children
• To expand accountability beyond the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster to include all government clusters and provinces

What can you do?

There are many ways to support the campaign. You can: wear a white ribbon for the 16-day period; volunteer at an NGO or community group; report child abuse to the police; encourage children to report bullying; encourage victims to speak out; and spread the message on social networks.

To help raise awareness, The Big Issue invites anyone with thoughts, comments or a story to tell regarding violence against women or children (and/or overcoming such aggression) to email us your insights. We will post these stories on our website – with your permission – either anonymously or attributed to you.

Reporting domestic violence

Keep these numbers handy, and use them wisely:

• SAPS Crime Stop 08600 10111
• Gender-Based Violence Command Centre 0800 428428
• STOP Gender Violence Helpline 0800 150150
• Suicide Crisis Line 0800 567 567
• Crisis Line 0861 574747
• SA National Council for Child Welfare 011 339 5741
• Human Trafficking 08000 737283 or 082 4553664

Read more about the campaign on the official Facebook Page