We begin with small pilots and believe that evidenced-based fundraising is bearing fruit.
As a Coalition in a shrinking donor environment, WWSOSA started small and minimised its core financial needs by having a highly streamlined Coordination Unit and undertaking its work in creative partnerships, which have yielded results.
We are part of a Gender Links project called Women’s Voice and Leadership, funded by the Canadian Government. We partner with KZN Network on Violence Against Women in a multistakeholder innovative community-rooted project. KZNVAW are lead implementing partner to pilot two local community violence-free zones involving innovative whole-community prevention activities. We are also piloting four district Rapid Response Teams with all local stakeholders, including the faith sector, to build referral systems and safety nets for GBV survivors for healing and justice. This work aims to break new ground in achieving the objectives of the National Strategic Plan on GBV.
This partnership provided bridge funding for communications strengthening and for the interfaith mobilisation campaign in 2023.
GCIS came on board for the Interfaith Summit in 2023 by providing media engagement expertise which led to widespread media coverage.
The GBVF Fund supported the Faith Leaders Gender Transformation Programme pilots 2 and 3 from 2022 – 2024. The fund also enabled some of the work for the interfaith mobilisation campaign in 2023.
GIZ supported the Faith Leaders Gender Transformation Programme pilots 2 and 3 in 2022-2024. They were a major partner in the interfaith mobilisation campaign which included the Interfaith Summit in 2023 with an Interfaith Statement and public pledge, as well as the development and launch of the Interfaith GBV Prevention and Mitigation Strategy 2024-2030.
This partnership which ran from 2021-2022 enabled the first pilot of the Faith Leaders Gender Transformation Programme and the running of the Trauma Accompaniment Programme. It also strengthened communications capacity.
The DGMT Innovation Fund offered capacity support in 2018-2019 and gave us support for the website and social media. In 2020-2021 it enabled us to implement the first pilot of the Faith Leaders Gender Transformation Programme.
This donation was offered to WWSOSA in 2020 to use at our discretion, which has enabled us to consolidate some fundamentals like our communications capacity, and to help us continue some of the work of the Faith Leaders Gender Transformation Programme.
ACT Umbumbano is a solidarity partner, which has periodically supported WWSOSA and its community partners with small grants to fill specific short-term gaps and enable us to continue working when funding was low. During Covid-19 and after the floods, it enabled us to offer a data subsidy to allow our online activities to be inclusive of all. It also helped fill a gap in the Faith Leaders Gender Transformation Programme. Its support stretches back to the time before we had any substantial funding – it enabled us to host an inaugural engagement between GBV survivors and faith leaders in 2017.
This partnership enables us to workshop church leaders during Covid-19 about the challenges of GBV in the context of lockdown and included translating some contextual Bible study materials for men on GBV into isiZulu.
This was our first major donor, which enabled us to put in place the core foundations to undergird our work. It also offered crucial funding to accompany our primary stakeholder, Phephisa Survivors Network, which has grown into an independent registered CBO that not only impacts survivors’ lives but also amplifies their advocacy voices amongst service providers and churches.
