Litsemba Rising is equipping students to challenge sexual harassment and become agents of change at the University of Eswatini
For students navigating university life, knowing that sexual harassment is wrong does not always mean knowing what to do about it.
What happens when a friend makes a sexist joke? Where do you turn when someone crosses a boundary? How do you support someone who has experienced harassment? And how do students themselves become part of creating a safer campus?
Through Litsemba Rising, students at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) are finding answers to these questions and, in the process, discovering their own capacity to create change.
At the centre of this journey are 25 Student Champions trained through the programme’s peer-driven Unlimited Interact Club (UIC) model. Equipped with knowledge and practical skills, the Champions have taken conversations about sexual harassment, gender norms, relationships, respect and safety into their peer networks, reaching more than 700 students in structured group discussions.
But the most significant change cannot be measured only in numbers. It can be seen in the way students now see themselves: not simply as people affected by the problem, but as people capable of doing something about it.
Finding Her Voice
Student Champion: Andiswa Mashwama
For Andiswa, becoming a Student Champion was deeply personal.
Before joining UIC, she describes feeling tired of being helpless. She had experienced moments on campus when she felt unsafe, unseen and unsure of how to speak up. She had also watched other students brush off uncomfortable comments, avoid certain spaces or remain silent because they did not know what to do or who would listen.
She said she joined the programme wanting to understand more about how sexual harassment happens and, importantly, how students can interrupt it.
What she found was more than the tools she expected, she highlighted.
“I gained confidence, I gained a community”
Through the programme, Andiswa shared that she developed a deeper understanding of gender dynamics and systemic injustice, while strengthening her communication and advocacy skills.
But perhaps the most important shift was how she began to see her own role. She said she realised that advocacy does not always require a loud voice or a perfect response.
“It’s not about being perfect or fearless, it’s about choosing to care enough to act even when it’s uncomfortable.”
Today, Andiswa sees herself as someone who can help create spaces where other young women feel able to speak. Her experience has turned personal frustration into a commitment to action.
Inclusion: Every Student Has a Voice
Student Champion: Khumbuzile Mbhamali
For Khumbuzile, a Student Champion with a disability, the programme has transformed how she responds to sexual harassment.
Before joining Litsemba Rising, she knew that harassment was wrong, but did not know where to report it or what she could do when she witnessed it. Through the programme, she gained not only knowledge about sexual harassment and available support, but also the confidence to act.
Today, she says she sees herself as someone who can support others rather than simply observe what is happening around her.
“I no longer just watch harassment but make it a point to support those affected”
Her journey demonstrates why women and girls in all their diversity need meaningful opportunities to participate in shaping responses to violence.
Male Allyship: Understanding That Allyship Requires Action
Student Champion: Bayabonga Masuku
Student Champion: Mpendulo Matfonsi
The transformation among the Student Champions also includes male students who are learning that preventing sexual harassment requires them to actively challenge the attitudes and behaviours that can enable it.
Bayabonga, a male Champion, says Litsemba Rising has strengthened his confidence to challenge gender stereotypes and harmful behaviour. “I challenge friends who are not part of the programme,” he said, demonstrating how Student Champions extend prevention as visible allies among peers beyond the programme.
For Mpendulo, one of the most important shifts was learning to centre and listen to women’s voices.
He came to understand that being an ally is not simply about identifying yourself as supportive. It requires action: listening, standing alongside people who speak out, challenging injustice and creating safer spaces.
“Allyship is not passive. It is not a label you wear. It is a practice” he said.
Their experiences show how violence prevention in higher education can engage male students not only as participants, but as active allies and agents of change.
Looking Beyond the Programme
For the Student Champions, the journey does not end when the programme ends.
The Champions are a continuing resource for prevention, with transferable skills in peer education and challenging harmful norms. As they move into workplaces and wider communities, they carry forward the confidence to speak up and support others, helping create environments where harmful norms are challenged, and women and girls can learn, work and thrive free from harassment. They leave with more than knowledge about sexual harassment. They carry communication, facilitation, advocacy and leadership skills that can be used in classrooms, workplaces, communities and relationships long after university.
The transformation is not simply that 25 students learned about sexual harassment prevention. It is that they began to see themselves differently as people with the voice, confidence and responsibility to influence the spaces around them.
And that is the change Litsemba Rising is working to build: higher education spaces where students are not silent bystanders, but active participants in creating an environment where everyone can learn, work and thrive free from violence.
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