When asked for her official reference, she simply answers: "I am Monica."
She is the founder and president of SCREAM, an organisation dealing with gender based violence in George. She works with the SAPS on victim empowerment, is a trained paralegal and a community worker, but most of all, a phenomenal women who survived gender based violence.
During her address on Tuesday, with MEC Dan Plato present, she said gender based violence is a complex problem, which should be seen as a context of life and not an event.
"This is a community problem that requires comprehensive response. Our efforts to address this should go beyond the individual, to ultimately affect social change," she said with conviction. "A strategic plan must be put in place, enabling victims to do something tangible towards the prevention of gender based violence, as opposed to remedying such situations when they occur."
Heynes said that a protocol should be developed that works from top to bottom, changing behaviour and the way that both men and women experience life.
"Without getting the basic ingredients right, any recipe will flop," she told the Advertiser on Tuesday.
Monica said that her main goal is the registration of a Section 18a organisation that will concentrate primarily on the prevention of gender based violence, response and support, which, she announced will be done with the assistance of the Mossel Bay Municipality.
Nomthi Mankazana from Genderlinks SA commented on Tuesday that the planning and hard work in putting together the summit were visible. "We are very pleased that the Mossel Bay Municipality, as a centre of excellence for gender mainstreaming, is the first to present this summit in order to roll out the ideals and processes on a both a regional and local level," she told the Advertiser.
The summit featured a vast amount of workshops, discussion groups and activities involving various stakeholders, who had the opportunity to share experiences, challenges, triumphs and more, supplying a vast number of stories to tell, testimony of the value of the summit.
"The summit was a great start at creating awareness within the greater community of our plight," said Yolandi Botha from the Leolan Academy for children with special needs, such as autism. "For us, the ones involved on a daily basis, dealing with and managing people living with disabilities, the interactivity and sharing meant a great deal."
Sean Snyman, who presented his thoughts on creating a unified voice through the establishment of the Consolidated Network of Persons with Disabilities, said the summit most definitely indicated the way forward. "Stakeholders coming together like this, gave us the opportunity to create a greater understanding amongst especially caregivers and policy makers, who are often able bodied persons and don't always have a full picture of the needs of people living with disabilities," Snyman said. The summit concludes tonight with a gala event at the Mossel Bay Town Hall. More feedback on the 'No more victims' summit will follow in next week's Mossel Bay Advertiser.
Good team spirit was obvious amongst all the teams participating in the mini outdoor games, hosted as part of the 'No more victims' summit this week. Photo: Sean Snyman
The ever popular Daantjie Kat was a real road safety hit as usual, during Tuesday's summit programme, hosted at the Old Power Station, Santos Beach. Here Daantjie gives a thumbs up, next to MEC Dan Plato, keynote speaker on the day. Photo: Alma Kritzinger
