Millions of young South African women and girls seeking Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services will be left stranded, as COVID-19 gobbles up all the public health resources. Siyakwazi Youth Network has noted with concern the limitations that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on young women and girls’ access to SRH services. 

COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health because health facilities are focusing more on the Coronavirus.  This has resulted in little or no assistance for the young women seeking SRH services where the attention and resources are reprioritised towards the management of this pandemic.

The lockdown has further res...

Mahatma Gandhi once said: “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.  When society disregards the rights of its vulnerable people, particularly during catastrophes such as COVID-19, instability and conflict usually prevail.  Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African government must continue to respect the rights and dignity of all its citizens, including vulnerable people.  Apart from the children, the elderly, the disabled and the poor, vulnerable people also include marginalised and stigmatised groups such as LGBTQ+, people living with HIV/AIDS, sex workers and the unemployed youth among others. These people are dispro...

South Africa is facing a national crisis of Violence Against Women and Children. According to eNCA, more than 2 300 Gender-Based Violence (GBV) cases have been reported during the first week of the 21-day lockdown.

The Siyakwazi Youth Network takes this as a serious offence against victims of Gender-Based Violence and we mourn the late passing of Simphiwe Sibeko. Simphiwe was a 14 year old from Dobsonville, Soweto and a Grade 9 learner at Aurora Girls’ High School.

She was found brutally murdered during the COVID-19 lockdown in Emndeni Extension after she was reported missing at the local police station on Friday, 03 April 2020 when she did not return home from a local shop on Thursda...