“I urge survivors of SGBV to take back control and speak up, because silence makes it worse. When I was 11 years old, my biological father started molesting me. He would take me to his bedroom when mom was in prison, and there, he would touch my private parts, hold me tightly and, sometimes, beat me. Later, i discovered that when one of my friends came to our house for a sleep over, he molested her too.

For a long time after that night, I chose to keep quiet. To just, “deal with it.” And it seemed to be working... until the day I had a major nervous breakdown and got really sick.

At the same time, I also found out that my father was still molesting children—children I knew and children I did not know.

It was clear: I could no longer keep quiet. I had to speak up. I had to #BreakFree. Since then, my life has become positive, and the abuse that trauma takes you through is now manageable.”

SGBV Survivor

The work of #BreakFree begins with stories:

listening to and believing survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

We gather lessons learned from stories shared by individuals and challenges experienced and best practices commissioned by institutions and/or organisations; and channel them to front-line service providers as well as other agencies where they serve as bases for implementing pragmatic interventions which inform system changes and influence policies that promote help-seeking behaviour and support for survivors and perpetrators of violence.

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#BreakFree Strategic Outcomes

10

BIG IDEAS

100

INTERVENTIONS

1,000

STORIES RELATED TO VIOLENCE

10,000

INTERACTIONS

100,000

PLEDGE SIGNATURES

The #BreakFree Anti-Violence pledges were born in 2019, and ONE has distributed them through pledge mobilisation and prevention activities. Since the launch in 2019, #BreakFree has raised awareness on SGBV and has encouraged 13,264 young people to take a stance and help end the cycle of violence within their communities by signing the pledge forms.

By the numbers

24

pledge activations

155

direct pledge mobilisation activities

50,049

pledge signatures from schools and teachers

The translation of the #BreakFree Anti-violence pledge into 6 Namibian vernacular languages, as well as braille and sign language.

10,000

Interactions

#BreakFree Anti-Violence Campaign has reached over 280,000 people through case work, pledge activations, story exchanges, capacity building and training initiatives, school outreaches, numerous prevention programmes, speaking engagements, information sharing sessions, dialogues and media publications (including TV, social media and radio).

In numbers:

Reached 208,000 people through 64,956 interactions.

1,000

Stories

#BreakFree has created numerous platforms where SGBV survivors and perpetrators of violence can share their lived experience and, ultimately, increase their ability to reframe their narratives which, in turn, enables them to in behaviour which is not only more pro-social, but also aids in managing challenges.

In numbers:

1,962 stories collected from schools through social workers and teachers at secondary schools, dialogues and the #BreakFree ‘Dare to Share – chatter box’ initiative.

Story Exchanges which give significantly useful statistics, such as:

#BreakFree continues to encourage survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders to break the silence and report acts of violence, through numerous interventions such as pledge activations, community outreaches, story exchanges, and school-based interventions.

The interventions and the Problematic Mindsets Research Report have revealed that men are the highest number of perpetrators of violence. As such #BreakFree has introduced the #BreakFreeWithTheBoyz to encourage men and boys to have difficult, frank, and non-judgmental conversations that strengthen their interpersonal skills.

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Our Impact

16 Days of Activism anti-violence pledge campaign video

In numbers

Trained more than 1,580 police officers, health care professionals, correction officers, NDF members, life skills teachers from 5 regions, social workers from 4 Ministries and NGOs, social work students, community-based groups, employees from corporates, B2Gold management and staff, media practitioners, church leaders, traditional leaders, male and female inmates, student leaders from different tertiary institutions on a wide range of topics related to sexual and gender-based violence.

Facilitated 6 #B2B Instagram Live discussions on Suicide in Youth, Victim-blaming, Anxiety during exams, Men and Mental Health, and Battle of the Sexes.

Worked on 118 landmark and/or precedent-setting cases; including therapeutic casework and material support; therapeutic group work; court work (preparation of vulnerable witnesses); denial of bail hearings, counseling and material support to families who lost loved ones due to SGBV, crisis intervention and trauma debriefing.

Referred over 315 cases for professional services to appropriate agencies since 2016.