Yves Saint Laurent Beauty has launched a campaign called Abuse Is Not Love which aims to combat intimate partner violence (IPV).
The French luxury fashion and beauty house said in a statement that women should have the freedom to be whoever they want to be, and have the freedom of independent thinking.
Over the past two years, Abuse Is Not Love campaign has been rolled out across 23 countries and educated over 267 000 people to understand the warning signs of abuse.
Yumnaa Waja, general manager at L’Oreal South Africa: luxury products division, said the sad reality of IPV in South Africa is that everyone has been impacted, either by being a victim or knowing the people who have been subjected to IPV and continue to suffer in silence.
“The intention of Abuse Is Not Love in South Africa is to educate young people to recognise IPV when it happens, and empower our communities with ways to support friends, family, and colleagues to be a part of the solution,” said Waja.
“The problem of IPV is so big that we can no longer ignore the social, political, and economic impact it has in South Africa. We must actively create awareness and provide tools for a better tomorrow.”
According to a study by The South African Medical Journal, IPV is a silent public health epidemic in South Africa.
IPV actively contributes to femicide, which is generally understood to involve the intentional murder of women because they are women and, according to Statistics South Africa, most cases of femicide are committed by partners or ex-partners.
Motoring and evaluation manager at ADAPT, Sidwell Sehoana, said: “IPV is learned behaviour. Given a chance, it can be unlearned as people are born inherently good.
“It is also of paramount importance that the focus should be on the positive benefits of being non-violent rather than on the negative consequences of being abusive or violent. This strategy has proven to be impactful on IPV prevention.”
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