As part of the 16 Days of Activism on No Violence Against women and Children the National and Provincial Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP) embarked on a range of activities as from the 21-25 August 2017 at Augrabies in ZFM district.

Community Engagement:
This section describes the approach used during the course of collecting information from the community regarding services rendered by stakeholders in the VEP sector. The community engagement was two-fold. In stage 1, training of volunteers and VEP stakeholders made presentation on their departmental services rendered for Victim Empowerment Programme.                                                         

In stage 2, a community dialogue was conducted with participants from the community. This event took place on the 23 August 2017 within the Augrabies Community Hall.

Community Dialogues:                               
The second component of engagement entailed a community dialogue which was facilitated by National DSD and VEP sector representatives, mainly from Provincial DSD. It was based on an exchange of information, face-to face, sharing personal stories and experiences, expressing perspectives, clarifying viewpoints, and developing solutions to community concerns.

Two hundred (200) participants were targeted for the dialogues however 260 turned up. For discussion purposes community members were divided into six groups comprising of 43 participants, namely men, women, people with disability, older persons and youth.

Each focus group discussed a specific topic:
 - Domestic Violence
 - Human Trafficking
 - Child Abuse
 - Abuse of older person
 - Abuse of people with disabilities
 - Sexual Abuse

Each topic was discussed at length with the view of getting understanding of the communities' perspective on the social ills and services available in their communities.

Interaction with Victim Empowerment Programme Stakeholders:  

The state organisations involved in supporting the VEP and that Programme have been included in this survey are as follows:                                                                                                                                              
 - Department of Social Development
 - SASSA
 - Department of Home Affairs
 - Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
 - Department of Health
 - Department of Education
 - South African Police Services
 - National Prosecution Authority
 - Non - Governmental Organizations
 
Burning issues:
The questionnaire asked respondents if they had taken up any burning issues as community members. Most respondents 50% said they didn't a few reasons cited for not reporting include the impression that SAPS officials are rude/not helpful.
 - Domestic Violence
 - Rape
 - Substance abuse
 - Assault
 - Child Maintenance
 - Sexual exploitation
 
Public Awareness were also made in the following areas:
 - Marchand
 - Greenfields
 - Nuwe Uitbreeding
 - Upper /Lower/ Middle Locations
 - Workers quarters on the farms