loss-ilahleko was created by South African female writer, Itumeleng Qhali known as Qhali. The initiative was created in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 epidemic which saw a frightening spike in GBV where women and children were locked inside their homes with their abusers. Qhali who is also a GBV survivor decided to combine the power of the arts and social development to work with others including government departments, to fight GBV through early childhood development and targeted women’s programmes. 

Qhali is an Eastern Cape born bilingual writer and editor, multidisciplinary creative, activist & development practitioner committed to developing women and children. In 2020 she completed her master’s degree at Rhodes University in Creative Writing with a bilingual thesis that explored writing out loss for healing including the losses caused by GBV in one’s mother tongue and in English. Qhali holds qualifications in public policy development and management, economics and marketing management and over ten years she has worked to create spaces and platforms for women, children, and youth to feel safer and more confident to achieve their dreams; these  include integrated social housing that protects and empowers single mothers; rural and peri-urban youth and women’s development programmes and projects.