Call for help: Make the Stop Gender Violence and AIDS Helplines a
Free Call from Cellphones!

Women’sNet, Gender Links and Nisaa join LifeLine Southern Africa to call on Cell-C, Vodacom, Virgin Mobile and MTN to make essential national helplines a free call from a cellphone.

LifeLine Southern Africa (a registered non profit organisation), who run these services, receive up to 700 calls a day on the Stop-Gender-Violence Helpline, and up to 3000 on the AIDS Helpline. During the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women* campaign, traffic to these helplines doubles. Women from all over the country seek help, support and referrals to other services.

LifeLine Southern Africa manages both these helplines. Calling these numbers from a Telkom landline is free, but not from a cellphone.

2 out of 3 South Africans have cell phones; at least 45% of cell phones users are female; 1 in every 3 South African women is abused, and more than half of all South Africans live under the poverty line

This means that it is too expensive for millions of people who have a cellphone but can not access a Telkom phone to call these valuable helplines. Millions of women cannot access counselling assistance because of cellphone costs.

We call on our mobile service providers to allow cellphone users to call the Stop Gender Violence Helpline and the AIDS Helpline at no cost (zero-rated call).

This will mean that:

• The 30 million cellphone users in South Africa, many of whom do not have access to a landline, will be able to freely access information, emotional support, referrals and counselling.
  
• Women in emergencies who are not close to a landline, can call for trauma counselling.
  
• Women whose abusive partners monitor their Telkom phone use, can leave the house and call for advice on getting a Protection Order using their cellphones.
  
• Rural women and women in informal settlements who have cellphones can be referred to an antiretroviral service if they been raped, within the 72-hour window period.
  

Let us make sure that help is really only a cell/phone call away.

Please endorse this call (add your details below) and email this letter to 10 of your friends or colleagues. You can also print this letter out and pass it along in your workplace or among your friends (fax the completed table to: 0866378235)

Emails with your signatures should be sent to sallys@womensnet.org.za

Sign it online at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/make-the-stop-gender-violence-and-aids-helplines-a-free-call-from-cellphones

For more information, email: sallys@womensnet.org.za

*The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children is an annual, global campaign to raise awareness of violence against women. For more information about the campaign please visit: http://womensnet.org.za