Woman Fighting for Human Rights Heads to South Korea to Share

Photo Credit: The Justice Desk

Jessica Dewhurst, founder of the Justice Desk, has been invited to speak about the thriving “The Mbokodo Club” in Seoul, South Korea.

South Africa (15 June 2022) – The Justice Desk, an award-winning South African human rights non-profit organisation, has been invited to South Korea to speak about a project that helps survivors of gender-based violence claim back their power.

The exciting news was announced on social media this week. Justice Desk founder Jessica Dewhurst has been invited to the 3rd BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference in Seoul, South Korea. There, she will discuss how BTS inspired the work being done with the flagship project, “The Mbokodo Club”.

The Justice Desk’s Mbokodo Club Project focuses on offering empowerment workshops, mental healthcare, and self-defence programs to girl survivors of gender-based violence and rape.

The young girls they work with are between 9 and 19 and come from vulnerable communities such as Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Langa and Bonteheuwel.

The project focuses on equipping young girls to lead their change, become community leaders and join a network of women supporting women within underserved communities and townships. The project helps these women with three main aims:

Empowerment workshops: Our heroes are empowered through various lessons and skills development sessions, such as training on gender-based violence, human rights education, sexual health, leadership development, public speaking, body image, and self-confidence.
Mental health support: Our young girls through mental health resilience development and workshops (such as guided meditation, yoga, journaling, and reflection). The girls also attend regular trauma counselling.
Fitness and self-defence: Specialised fitness sessions are run with our young girls, including boxing sessions and self-defence classes, which build their overall confidence and fitness levels.

“We were inspired to start The Mbokodo Club project after hearing BTS’s’ “love myself, love yourself” speech, which laid the foundation on which our project grew. We are now able to offer vulnerable girls from communities facing rape and GBV, leadership and empowerment workshops, mental health care, trauma counseling, and self-defence and fitness classes.

This project has gone on to become a phenomenal success, reaching and empowering hundreds of young girls and inspiring people from across the globe – all because of BTS, who themselves have also changed so many lives across the globe!” – Jessica Dewhurst

The ‘3rd BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference 2022’ will be held from the 14th to the 16th of July at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea. The theme of the conference is “The Post-Pandemic Era, Welcome to the New Humanity.”