Community Outreach

Child abuse in the poorer communities and the informal settlements is endemic. There are, conservatively, four million sexually abused children in South Africa. This translates to one in three girls and one in five boys abused before the age of sixteen. It was decided that with our expertise and experience we would be irresponsible if we did not attempt to tackle the problem at a grass roots level.

With this goal in mind we have developed a community awareness programme, using Cascade of Learning principles, to reach as many as possible. The programme is offered free-of-charge to participants from various organisations, such as early childhood education, foster parent groups, children’s homes, schools and churches. They are taught how to identify abuse, how to prevent it, resources for victims as well as appropriate parenting skills. We have also worked with Family Violence Centres teaching trauma debriefing and counselling to the volunteer helpers. We reach approximately 600 people directly each year and 3000 indirectly since our outreach started in 2002.

In response to a request to provide abuse education to children and teachers from the Adelaide Tambo School for the Disabled in Soweto, our survey found that many of the children were extremely traumatized. Guild Cottage now has a full-time social worker stationed at the school. The principal and board members have acclaimed the work we do in the extended school community. We work with children individually and in groups. We run family support and education workshops as well as intervening in parent-child conflicts. The children feel listened to and several cases of sexual abuse have been disclosed for the first time.