SASA! is a community mobilisation approach for preventing VAW and HIV. It is designed for catalysing community-led change of norms and behaviours that perpetuate gender inequality, violence and increased HIV vulnerability for women. SASA! means ‘Now’ in Kiswahili and is an acronym for the four phases of the approach - Start, Awareness, Support, Action. In the Start phase, an organization using SASA! begins by orienting staff to the approach and key concepts of power. They then select an equal number of female and male community activists (CAs)—well-known and respected people in the community (i.e. ‘opinion leaders’) selected for their interest in issues of violence, power and rights—and similarly select institutional activists, for example, from police, health care, local government and faith-based groups. All activists are introduced to the new ways of thinking about power and power imbalances in their own lives and within the community, and are mentored in the SASA! approach.