



5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS 16 VOICES - CONSTANCE
In the 13th episode of "16 Days, 16 Voices" we hear from Constance in Tembisa. Her story begins with a husband who controlled her every move, refusing to let her go to work and accusing her of cheating whenever she did. One evening, after taking a taxi home from work, she was attacked and gang rape…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - BONNIE
Bonnie’s story begins when she was 9, in a home where the person meant to protect her became the source of her fear. After a run in with older boys in her neighbourhood, he dragged her by her hair and screamed at her. That moment was the beginning of a pattern. She grew up with insults thrown at he…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - PROMISE
Promise represents many women in South Africa whose childhoods were marked by abuse they could not name at the time. In the story, she is harmed by a family member and grows up carrying the weight of it alone. Years later an outreach worker from POWA visits her community, opening a door she never h…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - BALISA
In the 16th episode of "16 Days, 16 Voices" we hear from Balisa. Her story, like so many others, begins with a controlling and abusive relationship. Her partner tried to dictate every part of her life, from where she worked to how she grieved a loss in her family. Tensions escalated and in a mome…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - JES FOORD
In the 14th episode of 16 Days, 16 Voices we hear how Jes Foord is out walking with her father in Kwa Zulu Natal when 5 armed men held them up. They tied her father to a tree and threw her into a ditch where she was gang raped. When the attackers fled, she had to find the strength to report what ha…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - MICHAELA VAN NIEROP
Michaela van Nierop shares a story that begins in her 1st year of university, when a night out with friends ended in her being drugged, abducted, and taken to a BnB where she was raped. She was a virgin with a strict Catholic upbringing, carrying shame that was never hers to carry. Years later she …

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - MERLIZE JOGIAT
In the 10th episode of 16 Days, 16 Voices we hear from Merlize Jogiat. She is a survivor of gender based violence and now works as the Advocacy and Operations Coordinator for Woman For Change. Her story began in a home where her father used violence and fear as discipline, shaping her earliest unde…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - ANONYMOUS
In the 9th episode of 16 Days, 16 Voices we hear from a survivor who can't share her name because the violence she lived through still threatens her safety. She was on set to film a gospel music video when a group of men armed with guns and knives stormed in. They dragged her and her friends into t…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - BULELWA ADONIS
In the 8th edition of 16 Days, 16 Voices we hear from Bulelwa Adonis. She is a psychology student and former Woman for Change spokesperson who has used her own experience to fuel her activism. Bulelwa has been a driving force in calls to recognise GBV as a national emergency, lending her voice to p…

5 MID MORNINGS - 16 DAYS, 16 VOICES - LEYONIE MARAIS
In the 7th episode of 16 Days, 16 Voices we hear from Leyonie Marais, the author of the book "Dethrone the Rapist". Her experiences with gender‑based violence (GBV) started at the age of 5. Having been assaulted six times by six different men, she turned her terrifying ordeal into fuel for healing …