The vision of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children (SBCWC) is the creation of a safe and secure society within a human rights culture, where women and children are empowered and live in a violence-free society.

Saartjie Baartman has established an integrated and comprehensive one-stop centre for women and children who are survivors of gender-based violence. They were the first ‘one-stop’ centre in South Africa.

They provide essential, cost-free services 365 days a year to abused women and children employing a comprehensive range of services for the effective treatment and prevention of violence against women and children. It also works in partnership with government departments and the non-governmental sector.

SBCWC has evolved to be the prime learning site nationally for providing holistic, integrated services to survivors of violence. Some of the services provided are managed directly by the Saartjie Baartman Centre. These include a 24-hour crisis response programme; a residential shelter programme and transitional housing for abused women and their children; a psycho-social support programme including a children’s counselling programme; a substance abuse programme and accredited job-skills training programmes for their clients.

They have been fortunate to have been selected as the organisation to pilot the Khuseleka model, a multi-sectoral approach in collaboration with key government departments and institutions designed to uphold all basic victim rights as encapsulated in the South African Victims Charter and the UN Conventions protecting the rights of women and children.

The statistics have revealed that a large percentage of their clients accessing services and seeking shelter are either using, abusing or addicted to some form of substance. This hinders the recovery process and based on these findings Saartjie Baartman have recently launched two new units within the centre, namely, an orientation unit and substance abuse unit which will serve their clients’ needs comprehensively and effectively.

The Centre is situated in Manenberg on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape of South Africa, an area with extremely high rates of crime, gangsterism, child abuse, unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence. There are few resources available in Manenberg and the surrounding areas and as a result the Centre provides services to a wide range of constituencies: neighbouring townships, farming communities, and 'informal' settlements.

The main goal of a coordinated community response to Gender Based Violence (GBV) is to engage a comprehensive range of essential individuals and organisations (healthcare workers, law enforcement, the criminal justice system, legal services, safe houses, schools, faith-based institutions, and advocacy organisations) in a community-wide strategy to ensure that survivors receive wide-ranging support and protection in a consistent and timely manner. Further aims include the development of a shared understanding of GBV and related roles, the roles of stakeholders and establishing coordinated procedures and policies across all agencies.

Please support us to fundraise for this incredible nonprofit, there are many needs and it would help women, youth and children experiencing domestic and/or sexual violence in their lives and those needing assistance to prevent further abuse and enable sustainable assistance to end the violence.

The aim is to run perpetrator prevention sessions where men and boys are educated on issues affecting women and girls.