SASA! Mobilizing Communities for Preventing Violence against Women

Goal: To help build national capacity on mobilizing communities and violence prevention by introducing the SASA! methodology – a benefits-based approach to community-wide mobilization for prevention of violence against women and HIV, developed by Raising Voices, an NGO based in Uganda. SASA! is human rights-based and focuses on eliminating the root causes of violence against women, namely the power inequality between men and women and the social norms that support it.

Content: Deeper understanding of power; connections between power and violence against women; greater understanding of community activism and movement building as necessary strategies for effective actions to end VAW; enhanced communication, community facilitation and training skills; stronger critical understanding of patriarchal culture and gender norms, which support unequal gender relations and lead to VAW; enhanced networking and collaboration among participants/stakeholders.

Participants: Women’s rights NGOs that work directly with communities and/or victims of VAW and/or perpetrators of VAW, sex workers, women with disability, men’s NGOs, young women activists, child-led and youth-led NGOs, sexual minority groups, government partners including the National Gender Equality Committee, National Human Rights Commission, relevant line ministries, one stop service center personnel, rural area social workers and policeman