Zellah Fuphe, a UCT alumnus who works in corporate governance and has a passion for governance and ethics, is the concept originator and driving force behind Alumni in Action programme, which she established together with UCT to assist and support survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) in the UCT community.

The issue of gender-based violence and the desire to help survivors has always been close to Zellah’s heart. Living in a country where women and children are often not safe in the spaces which they occupy, and have to face GBV on a daily basis, is a great concern to her. The case which touched her deeply and spurred her to action, was the murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana. Sanda Nyoka, the daughter of a close friend, was traumatised by Uyinene’s rape and murder and was inconsolable.

Zellah comments, “To see how difficult it was for someone who was living in the same space, who was scared and concerned for her safety on campus – how difficult it was for someone not directly impacted, highlighted how difficult it must be for survivors who have no support”. Zellah wanted to do something personal that depended on her and how she felt. She agonised about what she could do for 13 months and came up with the concept for the programme, personally providing the initial funding to enable eight (8) therapy sessions with UCT alumni psychologists for 25 GBV survivors. Her initiative was supported by Ms Dianna Yach and the Maueberger Foundation, who made a generous pledge of R100 000.00 in order to increase the number of survivor beneficiaries to 45.

When asked why she donated in this way to UCT, Zellah commented “I am a UCT alumnus and it is a community thing, which speaks to our humanity, where we don’t leave anybody behind. It is about seeing someone in need, asking myself what I can do as an individual and who can be part of my tribe?”

“It is my hope that the number of beneficiaries will continue to increase over time due to the generosity of the UCT alumni and other interested individuals. We are calling on psychologists to sign up to provide services to survivors; for others to contribute financially in order to provide assistance to more survivors. We are calling on students too, to take this on as their own, to access the help and to contribute whatever they can in order to rebuild agency, resilience and capacity in the lives of survivors”.