The Red Chair Project is a global campaign that runs each year during the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. It involves reserving an empty chair in a public place, alongside information about domestic abuse and gender-based violence.

The empty chair acts as a powerful symbol of the many women who’ve been killed through gender-based violence. It is a call to ensure that no more women die in this way by taking seriously the voices of survivors in our faith spaces.

The Faith Action to End GBV Collective, through its secretariat, We Will Speak Out SA, is inviting partners to join this campaign for this year’s 16 Days of Activism.

Three easy steps

1. Display a chair in a public place in your faith institution or workplace
2. Cover it in red fabric and place the poster on it
3. Leave it empty

More than awareness raising:
Adapt the campaign to suit your own goals!

• Localise the project by inserting local relevant support contact details and add your logo to the ones on the poster.
• Add a list of local domestic violence and GBV support services.
• If appropriate, feel free to adapt the metaphor in any way that make sense in your context- eg, you may want to use a chair at a table to signify who is missing from the table.
• Hold a minute of silence for an end to domestic and other forms of GBV during faith gatherings or meetings.
• When preaching or speaking at events during the 16 Days of Activism, include messages that support gender justice and speak out against GBV.
• Make information available on domestic violence and support services. 

Publicise – and be part of showcasing the South African Red Chair Campaign together – more voices, better impact!

Share your photos and brief information on your social media and tag us @WWSOSA and @FaithActionToEndGBV and send to us so we can do the same: communicatiohn@wwsosa.org or 0824345874.