Ubuntu Revolution

2008-12-01T10:36:00.003-06:00

Ubuntu Revolution is an African Gender Equality Movement of Media, Culture and Sports. Our purpose is to target the male role in gender disparity and combat violence and oppression towards women and girls.

Mission
Our mission is to inspire and incentivize men’s role in gender equality through media, culture and sports. We will disprove the myth that one must take power from another in order to be powerful. We will combat violence and oppression towards women through education, mentorship and awareness programs. We will prove that gender equality is not just a women’s initiative and that it is time for men to stand up, take responsibility and help pave the way to a better Africa. We will promote the reality that gender equality is the next crucial step for poverty reduction, sustainable peace, and development in Africa. We are committed to creating a replicable model for gender equality that can be implemented throughout the continent and we will accept nothing short of a revolution. It is time for a change.

Ubuntu Revolution Explained
Ubuntu (oo boon too) As Explained by the honorable Bishop Desmond Tutu
“Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children. This is God's dream.”

Revolution
Webster’s Dictionary defines a revolution as “a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm”. In the Rwandan language (Kinyarwanda),”Revolution” translates to “Impindura Matwara”, meaning “a change in the system or dramatic change in behavior”.

Ubuntu Revolution
We believe in the philosophy of “ubuntu” as a path to sustainable peace, economics and development in Africa. We believe that if people would accept and embrace the principles of family, interdependence, generosity, compassion and equality, we would cease to experience the outrageous atrocities we see in Africa every day. We would cease to witness such a gap between the rich and the poor. We believe that in order for this to happen, we must create a movement that is powerful enough and attractive enough for every race, gender, and creed to be compelled to be a part of it. We need to incite a fundamental change in the way people view gender equality. We believe Ubuntu Revolution, along with other invested organizations and individuals, can make that happen. It’s time to get to the root of the problem.

Cost of Violence Against Women
According to the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, violence against women “leads to major financial strains on society with regard to medical care, the judicial system, the social services, social insurances, unemployment, and production loss.”

• In the United States, health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide against women by their intimate partners exceeds $5.8 billion annually. The total for female assault victims is approximately $12.6 billion annually with an average of 7.2 days of work missed.
• In the United Kingdom, violence against women costs society over $69 billion annually.
• The Colombian government spends $73.7 million per year to prevent, detect, and treat intimate partner violence.
• Domestic violence constitutes the single biggest health risk to Australian women of reproductive age, resulting in economic losses of about $6.3 billion a year.
• In Chile, domestic violence cost women $1.56 billion in lost earnings in 1996, more than 2 per cent of the country's GDP.

The costs of violence against women are direct and indirect. Direct costs include those accruing from direct service provision such as that from the health care and criminal justice systems. Importantly, any measure of these direct costs will only be a fraction of the true costs since reporting rates are so low and many women do not seek medical attention. Indirect costs meanwhile include loss of productivity and earnings, as well as less tangible variables such as educational achievement and future earning potentials.

Why media, culture and sports?
This project is about taking an age old concept of equality and marketing it. Can you imagine what NIKE, Coke, and Toyota would be like if they never did any marketing? Most likely, we’d never know they existed. The same goes for the importance of gender equality. There are thousands of excellent organizations out there fighting for gender equality. Many of them have some amazing ideas. However, due to a lack of marketing savvy and implementation these amazing ideas never make it to the people they are intended to influence.

There is a marketing rule that points out that “it is not important what you are selling; it is important what ‘they’ are buying”. Who is the target audience? African men. What influences them? Media, culture and sports. The principles behind the “ubuntu” philosophy are not revolutionary. However, we believe the delivery of them can be. It’s time to take the concepts of ubuntu and gender equality to the root of the problem (men) in a format in which they value.

In order to make gender equality attractive to men, we must connect gender equality to the sports events, concerts, radio shows, etc, in which they currently participate. We need to show up where they are showing up. We need to speak where they are listening. And we need to create a movement where they are moving. Ubuntu Revolution is intended to act as a marketing devise for the many organizations out there fighting for gender equality.

Continent Wide Action Plan (3 – 5 years)
1. Create model that will be replicated throughout the continent of Africa
2. Secure partner countries
3. Create panel and modify the model for each country
4. Implement and manage country specific Ubuntu Revolution programs
5. Continent-wide Ubuntu Revolution event to be hosted in a different country every three years.

Methodology (AAA Program)
Awareness
1. Concerts, Conferences, Round Table Meetings, Sports Events
2. Mentoring Programs
3. Billboards, Radio, and TV Campaigns, PSAs
Acceptance
1. Men holding men accountable for their actions and/or inactions toward respecting women
2. Men challenging each other to recognize that they can be powerful without making others powerless.
3. Men and women realizing the importance of Gender Equality as a path to sustainable peace and development.
Action
1. More opportunities for women in the private sector
2. Fewer incidences of GBV (even during a time when access to reporting is increasing)
3. National Gender Equality Education Curriculum (implemented in all levels)

[this project is currently in the development stages]