Stories from Galeshewe

Published by Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication, this booklet offers a collection of personal stories that reflect how the availability and consumption of alcohol has had an impact on the Galeshewe community in the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. The booklet forms part of the work done by the Northern Cape Community Alcohol Advocacy project (see Related Summary below), which sought to collect and document the experiences of community members around alcohol abuse in order to bring forward the voices and perspectives of ordinary South Africans and give the issue of alcohol abuse a personal face, linking it to possible gender-based violence and unwanted or unprotected sexual activity, increasing the risk of HIV. The project falls under the Soul City Institute's nationwide Phuza Wize advocacy campaign (see Related Summary below), which seeks to change alcohol policy in South Africa. The booklet is designed as an advocacy tool aimed at policy makers and other stakeholders. For the Northern Cape Community Alcohol Advocacy project, young people in Galeshewe were trained to gather data about alcohol advertising and the role of alcohol in people’s lives, and the stories in the booklet are a small sample of the many stories that they collected from that community. The stories "speak about the impact of alcohol on themselves, their families and their friends. They are a powerful reminder that alcohol advertising shows us almost nothing about the real impact of alcohol consumption."