Everyday Heroes Comic Book Campaign

Six comic stories make up the Everyday Heroes series highlighting issues such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, abuse of older persons, and abuse of people with disabilities. Available in six South Africa languages, the comics are set in the vibrant and multi-cultural peri-urban community of Bhekanani (meaning "help one another"), South Africa. In this community, like any community, there are rich and poor, old and young people. There is also good and evil, lurking in the darkness of the shadows, personified by a local kingpin and his sidekicks, and "Everyday Heroes". The heroes include, "Batho Pele" professionals, such as the police, the nurses and the social workers, but they also include ordinary men and women who "refuse to let evil prosper." These characters include:

• Gogo "Magic" Mkhize - firm but fair, the mother of the community.
• Ntate Moloi - the elderly driver and messenger at a local law firm who has overcome his own childhood experiences of domestic violence.
• DJ Life - the radio disk jockey whose disability does nothing to stop him from living life to the full, and his new friend Jerome who overcomes his own disability.
• S'bongile - the single parent and social worker whose caring nature is known to all.
• Mothusi - the courageous policewoman who won't be intimidated.

Click here to download the comics.

The contract also involved developing a website, animatics, a distribution strategy, as well as carrying out a pilot project and M&E.

Crime and violence

United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime, European Union, Department of Social Development