Masoyi gold Youth in collaboration with the South African Police Service (SAPS) have come together to create an awareness campaign through a march, in response to the prevalent rape and murder of young teenage girls between the ages of 14-25.

The Masoyi, Mpumalanga, community is currently facing an increase in rape and murder of their young people, especially young women. In response to this horrific issue, our gold team has refused to stay silent. Jacky Maphosa, the Lead gold Facilitator Intern explains, “We worked with the community stakeholders to draft a memorandum to hand to the Minister of Safety. The march was attended by close to 7 000 community members, mostly youth. In Masoyi history, this was the first time a march has been conducted peacefully.”

The Masoyi gold Peer Educators have called upon all community members and stakeholders to come together to say that ‘enough is enough; the killing has to stop’. They also feel it’s important to look into the root causes of these killings, so that together they can find solutions. These brave young people are taking a stand; using their voices to create change.

At gold-youth, one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we are focusing on this year is #1: No Poverty. A target under this goal is to ‘Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all’. We’re proud of the gold Masoyi team for advocating for a safer community.