Cape Town - Lavender Hill activist Lucinda Evans was named in this year’s BBC list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. She says her accolade is shared with her community and every other Cape Flats community.
“I own this award together with Lavender Hill. What the award means to me as a person is that my voice has been amplified in a space where sometimes we feel very small and our voices are not heard,” she says.
Evans is well known as a voice for South African women. She has led nationwide marches and was one of the speakers at the #AmINext protest outside Parliament calling for government action against gender-based violence and femicide.
She is also the founder of a non-profit organisation called Philisa Abafazi Bethu which translated from Xhosa means “healing our women”.
The NPO was founded 11 years ago in Evans’ dining room and provides services for women who were victims of domestic violence.
Video by Kelly-Jane Turner
“What this award also means to me as an African woman is I want to inspire other African women that we should not be silent about the things that matter,” she said.
Evans was named on this list among other inspirational women such as Greta Thunberg, a Swiss teen climate activist and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Jamaican 100m sprint champion.
“What I appreciated was the fact that all 100 of us around the world is doing something to make somebody else's life better. I appreciate the fact that I am one of those 100 women,” she said.