Dawn Cavanagh was (born 23 March 1962). She is a

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

Early life and education

Dawn Cavanagh was born on March 23, 1962. She attended Fairvale Senior Secondary School in Wentworth, KwaZulu-Natal, and graduated from the University of Natal with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

social work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

in 1982. She received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in social work from the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA), known colloquially as Unisa, is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, U ...

in 1996 and studied for a master's degree in development studies from the University of Natal.

Career

Cavanagh is active in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in the fields of equal access to healthcare,

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

activism,

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

sexual rights Sexual and reproductive health and rights or ''SRHR'' is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that in some contexts are more or less distinct from each other, but less so or not at ...

, and

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest on t ...

. She works on

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

projects and development in local communities and in regional and international spaces. In 2004 She has worked for the Forum for the Empowerment of Women,Association for Women’s Rights in Development website
/ref> and Coalition of Africa n Lesbians. The first Black lesbian rights organization in South Africa. She has also worked for Oxfam, as well as at the

Civil Rights Defenders Civil Rights Defenders (Formerly the Swedish Helsinki Committee) is an international non-governmental organisation based in Stockholm, Sweden that does human rights work with a focus on civil and political rights. They primarily work to support lo ...

Akina Mama wa Afrika Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) ( Swahili for "African women") was established in 1985 in the United Kingdom as a small community organisation for African women. It is now an international and Pan-African non-governmental organisation headquartered in ...

and the Women's Leadership Centre in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. She helped to found the

Coalition of African Lesbians The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) is a network that comprises 14 non-profit organizations that are spread across 10 different countries in the sub-Saharan region of Africa.{{Cite journal , last1=Ngubane , first1=Musa , last2=Frank , first2=L ...

in 2004 and became its director in 2010. In 2014 Cavanagh set up the Masakhane programme ( Zulu for "Come, let's get stronger together") with the German

LSVD Lesben- und Schwulenverband in Deutschland (LSVD), German for the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany, is the largest non-governmental LGBT rights organisation in Germany. It was founded in 1990 and is part of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bis ...

to provide better networking and empowerment to

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and

transgender women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and som ...

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

. Cavanagh has also worked with and been promoted by

AWID The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), formerly the Association for Women in Development, is an international feminist membership and movement support organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable developmen ...

Publications

* ''Losing the Beijing Agenda in the Sea of 'New Solutions' to HIV and AIDS" (2005), in ''Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity.'' * ''The OTHER REFLECT: Five Years of Building a Community Foundation with LGBTIQ people in Southern Africa'' External Review (2019) (with Hope Chigudu)The Other Foundation website
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavanagh, Dawn 1962 births Living people South African feminists South African women's rights activists Lesbian feminists South African lesbians South African LGBT rights activists Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century South African LGBT people