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This is how you will save someone's life

A Group of Paramedic Students from the Emergency Medical Care Department of the Cape Peninsula University took a reactive approach to the abuse of women and children in South Africa.

Paramedics are normally called out to attend to the aftermath of abuse against women and children.

While a lot of awareness is created against the abuse of women and children in our community it is often only a reactive response to a social epidemic in our society.

These second year Paramedic students who each year need to pilot a community based project decided to formulate and drive a sustainable and proactive initiative which combats abuse.

They are faced with the often fatal results of Gender based violence and decided, instead of becoming complacent to this social epidemic they would become proactive and do their part in improving our society.

The Inspiration for the initiative came from an article that one of the students came across which referred to an initiative in Japan.

In the event that a neighbour, bystander or family member should hear or come across a domestic confrontation between a couple they need to diffuse the situation as soon as possible so that it does not escalate to possible fatal lengths.

An ingenious approach was created, walk across or over to the couple and simply ask for something. This way interrupting the confrontation and diffusing the situation.

The Paramedic students’ based their initiative on this and added a twist. The bystander should simply ask for a cup of sugar.

Their campaign was aptly named the “Sugar Campaign”.

The Students have been running the campaign for over 6 months with great success.

The Manner in which they have formulated their initiative is fantastic as most campaigns against a social problem are normally reactive but this initiative is proactive, as it aims to stop the abuse before it escalates to violence or death.

By using social media the students have made their initiative sustainable as well.

They spread information about their campaign via pamphlets which they hand out on campus and to South Africa via Social Media platform Facebook.

The awareness regarding the campaign will continue to spread indefinitely which is due to the sustainability which Social Media brings  as well as being able to continuously  provide victims of Gender Based Violence with a platform to share their stories, meet others in similar situations and find guidance from professionals.

The Sugar Campaign is aimed at not only creating awareness of Gender Based Violence but also to actively make a difference in the lives of our fellow South Africans.

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