Cape Town - Gun Free South Africa kicked off their Women’s Month campaign with flinkdink innovation.
“Guns and Domestic Violence - the means matter” was launched on Wednesday, in association with the Black Girl Fat Girl Magazine, the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation and Sonke Gender Justice.
As part of the campaign, the organisers handed out 120 packets of tampons, renamed Bul-lets.
Besides the obvious use for tampons, the campaign included an illustration on the packaging of how to use tampons in the event you are shot.
According to GFSA, tampons are used as a quick fix for bullet wounds on the battlefield. It compared some South African homes, where domestic violence occurs, to battlefields.
Gun Free SA handed out 120 packets of tampons, renamed Bul-lets. Picture: Daily Voice
Kim Martin, CEO of the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, says: “Unfortunately in today’s times, the message has to be harsh in order for people to listen. The mere threat of a gun in the home is abuse in itself and will have devastating long-term effects on a family.”
Reeva was shot and killed by her Paralympian boyfriend Oscar Pistorius in 2013.
Nurahn Ryklief from Gun Free SA says: “The Medical Research Council found that a legal gun is used in 75% of cases in which a woman is shot and killed, and in 60% of cases this shooting occurs in her home."
“It is important for Gun Free South Africa to empower women to know their rights, and this is the aim of the campaign."
“For women to know that under the Firearms Control Act, it is a right for any woman who lives in fear of violence in her home to ask the police to remove the gun immediately.”