Sprint For Her SA

South African branch of SprintForHer: an online community of solidarity with survivors and victims of sexual & gender-based violence through exercise as a symbol of strength and reclaiming one’s body. SprintForHerSA was founded in 2016, just months after the core SprintForHer movement was started in London by Bryn Tod-Tims. Co-founded by Lauren Loxton and Kimberly Bolton, the SprintForHerSA Team originally also included Ashleigh Lopez, Ashlyn Quenet-Meintjes and Bryn Tod-Tims. In May 2020, Ashleigh Lopez was appointed as the Executive Director of SprintForHerSA and manages all day-to-day operations. SprintForHerSA operates under the same mission and ethos as SprintForHer: including the following three priorities in order of importance:

Firstly, to create an ONLINE COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY for those affected by sexual & GBV by encouraging people to use in solidarity with survivors when posting photos of their runs/workouts. This also works towards the second goal of creating constant and consistent AWARENESS about these prevalent issues. The third, is to use the platform we have created to FUNDRAISE on behalf of worthy organisations with the same objectives to enable them to physically assist those in need of support and protection who have better resources and expertise than ourselves. When you include our hashtag in your posts about exercise – of any kind in whatever way you are able – you recognise the importance of bodily autonomy, of both physical and inner strength and that you pledge to make sure, with whatever power you have, that every womxn and child has the right to live a safe, dignified and equal life. Although it may seem like a small gesture, the ultimate goal is for the hashtag (and the movement in general) to garner enough online traction that it might be seen by victims and survivors globally: who will find, in our social media pages, a place that they can go to physically see all of the people who believe and support them – and know that they are not alone. The hope is that, in doing this, it will create an environment in which victims will feel more supported and able to speak out. That while we cannot remove the pain and suffering that they had and still have to endure, we can hopefully remove the isolation and shame that unjustly sits on the shoulders of survivors by forming a culture that normalises telling our stories, holding perpetrators accountable and abhors victim-blaming. It is not enough to acknowledge the problem every once-in-a-while when a well-publicised incident feels "close-to-home" - because this problem is, quite frankly, much bigger than several isolated incidents. It is woven into the fabric of our culture by our perceptions of the worth of womxn & children and our misunderstands about what constitutes rape, abuse and true consent. This is what means. And these are the values you align yourself with when you include it in your workout posts. The beneficiary organisation of our on-going campaign (consisting of weekly free, online, home-based, equipmentless classes donated by fitness professionals) is Lawyers Against Abuse (LvA) which is providing victims in the Diepsloot area and surrounds with vital legal assistance & psychosocial therapy during lockdown as domestic violence situations have skyrocketed. To find out more about them, please visit their website at www.lva.org.za. Donations to LvA in the name of can be made on our Global Giving page: https://www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/sprintforherfromhome/. Please note that SprintForHerSA does not personally collect or handle any funds: all money raised goes directly into the accounts of our endorsed organisations or third-party crowd-sourcing sites. The focus of this movement, as indicated by its name, is the disproportionate rate at which womxn and girls are affected by sexual and gender-based violence. We welcome all transgender and non-binary people who seek the support of our community as they too experience disproportionate gender-based violence as well as transphobia. We will never discount the sexual or abusive trauma inflicted on men; while maintaining our focus on the far too-high prevalence of these crimes on womxn and children.