MY ANTI-SRGBV CAMPAIGN JOURNEY Angela Chisanga BETUZ (Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia)
In my journey as an activist against School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV), I met people who had been perpetrators or victims. My first encounter with SRGBV which stands out in my mind was way back even before the SRGBV campaign began. I remember in my school where I taught something happened which opened my eyes. Yes, it was like a lot of negative things used to happen in the school environment without most of us staff knowing about it. One Monday morning I received a text message which provoked me. The message was from a male colleague, Mr John, with whom I taught and it read in part, ‘stop telling people lies about me’. I was confused as I did not I understand what the text meant. It was warning me to stop talking about his deeds when on that particular day I wasn’t even in school but at the hospital having my tooth extracted. I later learnt that Mr. John had sent messages to a few people who he suspected knew about his evil acts in the school, and they like me were equally offended at receiving his text. Little did I know that this was the beginning of my getting to know the ugly side of our beautiful school. When my fellow teacher Ms. Banda bitterly complained to me about the message she also received from Mr. John, I quickly advised her to work with me to get to the bottom of the story. We planned to enquire from the learners to find out if there was anything they knew as to what was happening in the school. The next morning we asked for a room we could use, and the school offered us the use of a senior Teachers’ office.
30
