On 8 October 2017 I'm running the Bournemouth Marathon! It will be my third marathon, and after narrowly missing out on a sub 4-hour finish time on my previous two marathons, I've been training hard since the spring to make sure my finishing time starts with a 3 on this occasion!

I wanted to use this as an opportunity to raise some funds for Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP) where I spent six weeks volunteering in 2015 and another week in 2016.

TVEP operate in the Venda region of Limpopo, South Africa. This region currently has high HIV prevalence and high rates of unemployment, domestic violence and sexual abuse. The concept of patriarchy is deeply entrenched, resulting in crimes being trivialised, support systems being weak and the rights of women and children not being respected. TVEP defines its mission as 'generating an attitude of zero tolerance towards all forms of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and AIDS stigmatisation' and this guides all of its work.

Perhaps the most successful and well known TVEP project is the Zero Tolerance Village Alliance (ZTVA) which has been running since 2005. ZTVA empowers entire villages to know and exercise their rights regarding sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and HIV/AIDS. Villagers make a public pledge at a village ceremony to not condone acts of violence or stigma, resulting in significant drops in abuse. The project is so successful it is now being trialled in other African countries. You can find out more about TVEP here: http://www.tvep.org.za/

Funding for project activities is an ongoing challenge, and getting sufficient funding to cover core costs (such as non-funded staff roles and overheads) is especially difficult. TVEP staff are very passionate about what they do and their work makes a big positive difference to the live of many people. Please help me to support them!