Say NO to Domestic Violence Project

The Say NO to Domestic Violence project includes four short films, eight documentaries, and radio magazines.

Two of the four short films, "Dina" and "O Lobolo" (Lobola) have been selected for competition in the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film Festival. The film "Dina" tells the story of a 14 year old girl who becomes pregnant. When her father Remane finds out about it, he loses control of his bad temper and violently hits his wife, Fausia, who ends up in hospital. Dina convinces her mother to press charges against Remane, but, as the film shows, his family pay a high price for justice. In "O Lobolo", Costa, a young carpenter, is very unhappy when, after two years of marriage, his wife Sofia has still not given him children. He now believes that he is getting a bad deal for the lobola (brideprice) he paid for his wife.

In addition, a series of 12 television products were produced in about six months by a team of professionals from Mozambique, as well as a small team of consultants from South Africa. According to N'weti, the series proved that it is possible to do more in less time, and still achieve a higher degree of quality at all levels. It was also a unique opportunity for training of different technical areas of production, and exchange between professionals from neighbouring countries.

Besides mass broadcasting of all the programmes through Mozambican media, the video products will also be used in social mobilisation initiatives implemented by partner organisations to influence and change behaviours regarding domestic violence.

Gender-based Violence, Rights

Domestic violence against women is regarded as a public health issue in Mozambique. In recent years, the government and development organisations have been making significant efforts to promote gender equality and decrease gender-based violence in the country.

In 2009, a national bill on domestic violence was passed, which N'weti states represented major progress in the fight against violence against women. The challenge since then has been to reach the majority of the population with information about the issue and laws surrounding it.

The opportunity to implement the Say NO to Domestic Violence project was a direct result of a series of capacity building and training opportunities provided to N'weti by Soul City Institute for Health & Development Communication in previous years. N'weti is Soul City's regional partner in Mozambique.

"Dina" has been awarded the Best Short Film Award six international cinema festivals in Africa and Europe, including AMAA (Nigeria) and Fest’Afilm (Montpellier, France).