Throughout the semester, I have the opportunity to volunteer my time at the South African Faith and Family Institute (SAFFI). This organization works to promote domestic violence awareness and advocacy within faith based communities. Currently, this issue is very poorly addressed by local faith leaders. Often, women are told that this is just 'their cross to bear' or that they simply need to pray harder and work at not upsetting their husbands. This type of response is incredibly prevalent in the rural regions of the country in which a patriarchal social system is heavily enforced. SAFFI works to facilitate dialogue between survivors, batterers, social workers and religious leaders to coordinate a better understanding of domestic violence. Their work empowers both the individuals directly affected by abuse as well as those involved with its intervention projects.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, I have the privilege to spend a full day at the SAFFI office with the founder/director, Elizabeth Peterson. She is an extremely passionate and inspiring woman and I am so excited to get to work with her over the course of the next few months.
I hope you have the chance to visit SAFFI's website to learn more about their work (www.saffi.org.za).
In the meantime, I will be sure to keep you updated on my experiences at SAFFI, as I am sure there is a lot in store for me.
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