Bringing colour back into the lives of South Africa's children

You have been on this journey with us, and have come to realise that there are no easy answers.

The fabric of our South African society is fraught with:

• Issues of male identity and sexuality
• Gender inequality
• Distorted traditional and cultural practices
• Apartheid
• AIDS and the myth of the "virgin cure"

If we look at the rational, clinical explanation of why men rape you will find a plethora of data that tries to neatly explain the root cause, such as:

POWER-REASSURANCE: That's what law enforcement calls the " gentleman rapist". He has a complex fantasy of a consensual relationship with a women.

POWER-ASSERTIVE:That's the individual who believes that he is entitled to do whatever he wants to a woman. They're to be used for his gratification. His fantasies are minimal.

ANGER-RETALIATORY: This person assaults because he is motivated by anger, and he's getting even with women for real or imagined wrongs.He has almost no fantasy. He simply strikes.

ANGER-EXCITATION: He's a sexual sadist. He's punishing women because he believes them to be evil and powerful, so he's trying to take that power. He has deep and complex fantasies.

OPPORTUNISTIC: He's there to commit another crime, like robbery or burglary. The victim is there and he simply seizes the opportunity. He's frequently under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

GANG RAPE:This involves three or more offenders, and you always have a leader and a reluctant participant. Those are extremely violent, and what you find is that they're playing for each other's approval. It gets into a pack mentality and is horrendous.

In our Xploring we found that the neat boxes of psychology are not sufficient to understand what motivates South African men. So what do we then do in South Africa to STOP THIS?

Our objective, from the outset was to STOP child abuse in South Africa by 2011.

We believe that the biggest issue standing in the way of realising this objective is that South Africa has one of the highest incidences of rape and silence about rape in the world -a rate comparable with a war zone such as Darfur, Rwanda or Bosnia. Victims are either afraid to speak out because they will be persecuted or worse yet, ostracized because they are not believed.

We believe that when these men rape children, they are creating a state of war within their communities, which results in the psychological death of our children. Nobody wants to live in a war zone
where the enemy is protected and the victims ostracized!

WE NEED TO STOP THE WAR BY OSTRACIZING THE PERPETRATOR NOT THE VICTIM!