#TheTotalShutdown Rise-Up Against Gender Based Violence

#TheTotalShutdown
My Body is NOT Your Crime Scene!

On the 1st of August 2018, a day that marks the beginning of womxn's month, women and gender non-conforming people (GNC) from all sectors of South Africa will shut down the country in protest against gender-based violence.

South Africa is leading with five times the global average of femicide rate.

Sixty three (63) years after the historic Women’s March of 1956, womxn of all backgrounds in South Africa find themselves with very little to celebrate in the face of a growing epidemic of gender based violence and femicide.

Daily headlines of missing, beaten and murdered women are quickly becoming a new normal thus leaving very little to celebrate as the National Women's Month approaches. This is why a group of intersectional womxn are determined to shut down the country to mourn and commemorate the many women who have died and fallen victim to gender based violence. We are also rising to reclaim our constitutional right to freedom of movement where our basic existence is also at stake.

United under the slogan, Our Bodies - Not Your Crime Scene! the #TotalShutdown movement seeks to reclaim South African womxn’s right to exist without fear of their bodies being violated and/or murdered. We will deliver a memorandum that speaks to reforms addressed to the three (3) pillars of government (administrative, legislative and judiciary) as well as recommendations for mainstreaming effective prevention and response to gender based violence at the national, regional and local levels.

#TotalShutdown is collaborating and supported by other NGOs, union and civil society organizations mobilizing masses of women to march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Parliament in Cape Town and the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein. Marches in other regions and local hubs are also planned and will be updated throughout this campaign period. Please visit our facebook page for more information and support us.

We need resources for transporting women from remote areas to the marches, printing flyers to mobilize support and awareness, renting portable toilets for meeting points and along march routes, water, t-shirts, data for organizing online, refreshments for volunteers and marshals, security, etc.

Women want to die no more, will you help us? Every amount counts.