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#WOMANDLACHALLENGE
“The #womandlachallenge will not only honour the Women of South Africa during Women’s Month, but will also draw attention to the goodwill of our country – raising necessary financial support to empower our women and children (along with our artists) – and, hopefully, capture the hearts of the world!”
On Sunday 9 August 2020, at 12h00, as our country celebrates Women’s Day, the streets of Maboneng, (Sotho: Place of Light), the art district in the East of Johannesburg’s Inner City, will resound with the sounds and images of Women’s Power during the livestreaming launch of the global @womandlachallenge – on both the @cityofcourage and @womandlachallenge facebook pages.
The #womandlachallenge is an attempt to break a global record for the most – in quantity and diversity – #jerusalemacharitychallenges completed, for charity, in the Women’s Month (August) across the country – and, potentially, the world – under the hashtag #womandlachallenge.
Based on the song Jerusalema, by MasterKG and Nomcebo Zikode (remix with Burna Boy), the #jerusalemachallenge, has taken the world by storm and has become a beacon of light, hope and community-building during Covid-19 lockdown.
The #womandlachallenge follows a morning of activity focusing on the women of South Africa. Starting at 10h00, at the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill, famed Gender Activist, Luke Lamprecht will be leading a group of runners – clad in pink and orange, the colours of women and GBV activism – through Johannesburg Inner City on the second @cityofcourage tour in the past month in aid of Gender Based Violence (GBV) projects in the inner city. In keeping with the historical precedents of Women’s Day 9 August 1956[i], the run will focus on a pantheon of inspiring women who have changed the course of our history – depicted in public art throughout the city – and also contemporary male and female artists who are guiding a women-empowered future.[ii]
The 30 runners include young activists – male and female members of Fight with Insight, a boxing and fitness academy that teaches at-risk youth to manage aggression positively, and the Nirvana programme, a female-led community-based initiative for young girls and women in inner-city Hillbrow, Berea, and Yeoville.
The run will end in Maboneng where the runners will join the young dancers of Enzo Dance Academy of Kathlehong, led by Enzo Thatohatsi Musi, and the youth from the inner city, in a livestreaming #womandlachallenge – with the endorsement, and potential appearance, of the co-writer and “voice” of the song, Ms. Noncebo Zikode.
The event will coincide with the unveiling of two murals dedicated to the Women of South Africa: A mural by @dbongz_one (Bongani Mahlathi), depicting a group of contemporary South African women, and a road-painting, by the artists and community of Maboneng. Currently being painted onto the tarmac, (visible from above, in the tradition of the recent ‘Black Lives Matter’ street paintings), the road-painting includes just one phrase #WOMANDLA – Women’s Power!
The #womandlachallenge street event will be limited to less than fifty masked-up and socially-distanced participants, and will be live-streamed and will act as the catalyst for what the organisers hope will be the biggest #jerusalemacharitychallenge in the world. Providing commentary with his slam-style is winner of the Africa Cup of Slam Poetry for 2018, (Coupe d’Afrique Slam Poésie) Thuthukani Myeza.[iii]
MASK-UP, WARM-UP, PERFORM AND BEAM IT UP TO SOCIAL MEDIA IN A BID TO MAKE A WORLD RECORD IN WOMAN’S MONTH!
Both during and following the Maboneng #womandlachallenge, groups across the country (organisations, companies, community groups, families, neighbourhoods) will be challenged to take up the #womandlachallenge, and “sign up, mask up, warm up, dance and upload” their videos to the @cityofcourage and @womandlachallenge facebook pages tagging #womandlachallenge #jerusalemacharitychallenge #women’sdaychallenge – over the course of Women’s Month.
The organisers have requested that each participant donate anything from R 1.00 to many multiples thereof via Quicket and Snapscan by clicking through the @womandlachallenge facebook page or www.womandlachallenge.com – and to challenge their colleagues and competitors to do the same. THIS INCLUDES MEDIA HOUSES AS WELL!
The event is produced by Space Productions and Ithemba Upliftment Foundation in association with the Inner City Collective Community Action Network (CAN), which, under Gauteng Together and Angel Network forms an alliance of non-profit and community structures that have come together in aligned bodies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on the people of South Africa.
All proceeds, after expenses, will be earmarked for organisations that support women and children’s empowerment, and children’s education and feeding schemes, under the administration of the Inner City CAN’s GBV fund. Beneficiaries include Fight with Insight, Women and Men Against Child Abuse, Africa Awake, among others.