transsupportgroupad_augtosep2012_jhb.pdf
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"8 WEEK TRANS SUPPORT GROUP (JOHANNESBURG) (AUG & SEP 2012)

You are not an isolated individual but part of a broader community with similar experiences. It is often easy to forget this when living under continually difficult social circumstances and the fear of discrimination.

Please join us for a short-term support group for trans-identified individuals. This group aims to provide a safe and mutually supportive environment for its members to share their personal struggles and triumphs.

Venue: Roosevelt Park Area, Johannesburg
Day: Wednesday evenings from 01 August 2012 until 19 September 2012
Time: 19h00 to 20h30
Duration: 8 consecutive weeks
Cost : R200 per session (partly reclaimable from medical aids)

Aim

This is a short-term supportive therapy group for M2Fs and F2Ms at various stages of their journey.

The group aims to provide a safe, confidential and mutually supportive space where members may share experiences that they are struggling with and would like to discuss in the group.

Benefits of group work

One of the powerful aspects of group work is that one may often see aspects of yourself in others. These are both aspects that you embrace and aspects of yourselves and your past that are difficult to accept.

By committing to a group process one has the potential to:
1) learn more about yourself and the way you interact with those around you,
2) learn through others’ struggles and triumphs,
3) receive fresh insights and feedback from the group around concerns that may be troubling you, and
4) the opportunity to provide support to others.

Group membership reminds one that you are not an isolated individual but part of a broader community.

About the facilitator

I am clinical psychologist in private practice in Parkhurst. I completed my Masters in Clinical Psychology at the University of the Western Cape (well-known for its liberal thinking) and my community service at Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital for patients with MDR and XDR tuberculosis. I see members of the LGBTI community in my practice and completed my honours research around transsexual identity at the University of Cape Town with the assistance of Gender Dynamix (Cape Town).

How do I join?

Contact me on 081 263 2217 if you would like to join this much-needed group. I will forward you an application form and arrange a mutually convenient time for us to get to know one another and assess whether groupwork is best suited to your needs. This consultation is charged at a fee of R200.

Places in the group are limited to 8 members so please do apply soonest.

This group is too far from home or you require a different time slot?

Please feel free to forward your details to me if you would like to attend a similar group at a different time or know that there is a need for this support group in your area."
 
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1 February 2012

Announcement: Transitioning Africa

 

Gender DynamiX (GDX) and the Support Initiative for People with atypical sexual Development (SIPD) have taken their collaboration in the Exchange Programmes in 2010 and 2011 a step further and, together with Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA), will concentrate its efforts mainly on advocacy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Forming the tripartite will further solidify and strengthen their work in Africa and a specific mission and vision for the new partnership has been formulated.

The main focus of this new entity is to support a growing transgender and intersex movement and to engage regionally in advocacy for the human rights of transgender and intersex people. While forming a platform for all regional work of the three organisations, Transitioning Africa is not a new NGO but will remain a formal partnership of the three organisations and thus retain autonomy locally and regionally and the capacity for its activities will be provided by the three organisations in the implementation of its activities, such as capacity building workshops, advocacy support to other organisations, exchange programmes and mentorships.

The vision of Transitioning Africa is to see a strong transgender and intersex movement in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on human rights principles, while the mission is to strive for gender recognition within social movements in Africa. It aims to build transgender and intersex leadership and capacity, by supporting both individual transgender and intersex activists, as well as transgender and intersex organisations on the continent. The mission further states that Transitioning Africa will advocate for transgender and intersex issues within regional and international platforms, directly, and support local advocacy efforts when invited. It will also aim to document the history of the transgender and intersex movement in Africa.

An Advisory Committee advise Transitioning Africa on its work. This Committee will consist of 6 members, including the Directors of the 3 partner organisations. Three members will be recruited strategically to bring in knowledge and/or skills for the benefit of Transitioning Africa.

 

More organisational information below:

 

 

Gender DynamiX, founded 2005, was the first organisation in South Africa and Africa which specifically advocates for transgender individuals. GDX provides resources and information about transgender, transsexual and gender non-conforming individuals  and seeks to promote awareness  within mainstream society by means of educating and empowering people from diverse communities, including government departments, service providers, medical professionals, journalists, academia and refugees. GDX also reaches out to parents, partners, children, co-workers and people who journey alongside trans people.

Support initiative for People with atypical sex Development, was founded in 2007 by Julius Kaggwa, a Ugandan intersex activist. This Human Rights organisation is the only intersex health and rights organisation in Uganda and the East African region that specifically addresses the human rights of intersex people and provides reliable and objective information on the plight of intersex and gender non-conforming persons in Uganda. SIPD advocates, mediates and provides services for intersex people throughout Uganda. Their objectives are to advance intersex people’s rights through national legislation. A primary goal of SIPD is to end the stigma and secrecy surrounding intersex people, affording them freedom of choice and decision regarding their gender identity.

 

Transgender and Intersex Africa is an organisation that has been initiated by black transgender individuals to focus on black transgender and intersex issues in South Africa in 2010 and was funded in 2011 by mama cash. Our aim is to break the silence and stop ignorance about the existence of the black Transgender and Intersex community in South Africa especially in the rural areas and black townships. TIA also want to bring the knowledge of applicable terminologies and a better understanding of the condition, however not dismissing the indigenous knowledge of African transgender and intersex identity. The founder, Tebogo Nkoana worked previously at Gender DynamiX and was an Exchange Programme participant.

 

For more information please contact

Julius Kaggwa, Director of SIPD

[email protected]

Tebogo Nkoana, Director of TIA

[email protected]

Liesl Theron, Director of GDX

[email protected]