Join the RememberHER initiative to honour victims of gender-based violence
The RememberHER initiative forms part of a broader movement to transform grief into action, ensuring that remembrance leads to advocacy, healing, and systemic change.
Image: Supplied
1 000 Women Trust, a woman-led organisation, has launched RememberHER, a nationwide mobilisation to honour women and children lost to gender-based violence.
The initiative forms part of the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
Co-founder Tina Thiart said: “Through storytelling, remembrance, and collective healing, we invite all women’s organisations nationwide to join hands with us by creating ‘memory corners’ - sacred spaces where communities can gather, reflect, and heal. These spaces serve as living memorials, ensuring that the names and stories of victims are never forgotten, while offering survivors and families a place of real comfort and solidarity.”
Ms Thiart and Wendy Ackerman first mobilised women in 2003, intending to bring 1 000 women together to talk about GBV. She said RememberHER was launched in November as an extension of the HearMeToo support groups and First Responder training, driven by the need to “do more to facilitate healing.”
Commemoration wall of the women and children who were killed in gender-based violence.
Image: Supplied
1000 Women Trust is now launching a national remembrance for all women lost to gender-based violence in South Africa.
Ms Thiart highlighted the severe scale of the crisis: “Between April 2023 and March 2024, 5,578 women were murdered in South Africa. In just the first quarter of 2025, the country lost 837 women through femicide. That translates to approximately nine women killed every single day.”
She said: “Through RememberHER, we are reclaiming the places where women were silenced and transforming them into sanctuaries of voice, dignity, and legacy. Every story collected is a voice reclaimed. Every memory corner is a step toward healing and justice.”
16 days of activism.
Image: Supplied
“To the families left behind, our message is clear: You are not alone. Your pain is shared. Your daughter’s name will live on.”
The RememberHER initiative forms part of a broader movement to transform grief into action, ensuring that remembrance leads to advocacy, healing, and systemic change.
Ms Thiart encouraged women’s organisations and the public to take part:
“Be part of RememberHER by showing up and registering your organisation as a partner or host a local remembrance activity. Speak up by sharing names and stories to the RememberHER archive, and amplify by using your platforms. Tag @1000women1voice and use #RememberHER #PowerInEveryVoice.”
She added that communities can also participate symbolically:
“Mobilising people to wear orange, light candles, or create art.”
Calling for broad support, she said:
“Media houses, community leaders, and the public are invited to cover and support the RememberHER projects during the 16 Days campaign. Together, we can ensure that the lives of women and children lost to GBV are honored, remembered, and never erased.”
HOW TO JOIN
- Register your organisation as a partner
- Host a local remembrance activity
- Share names and stories with the RememberHER archive
- Amplify online with #RememberHER #PowerInEveryVoice #1000women1voice
- Mobilise members to wear orange, light candles, and create art
- Collaborate on advocacy and policy change
To sign up, email projects@1000women.co.za
Participants will receive the RememberHER Toolkit (flyers, scripts, visuals) and are encouraged to share remembrance dates and tag activities with @1000women1voice.
Ms Thiart said they are calling on all women’s groups, community-based organisations, all women and good men to join their movement. To join via WhatsApp: 061 469 0479.