Helping victims of child abuse and neglect --------------------------------------------------
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Nonceba Family Counseling Centre is based in Khayelitsha, a large black township of over a million people, on the outskirts of Cape Town. Its mission is to help children who have been sexually abused or raped, provide support for their families and work with the community to change the conditions that leads to such abuse. It is a community driven project, supported financially by the Provincial Government, Rotary, Charitable Trusts and private individuals and is subject to annual service delivery and financial audits. The project was started in 1998 to respond to the problems of sexual abuse in Khayelitsha, particularly the sexual abuse of children, which has risen to epidemic proportions, affecting 1 in 3 children. With a population of over a million, half of whom are under 18, the number of children needing help is overwhelming. Although there are several children’s organisations in Khayelitsha, Nonceba is the only one especially for children who have been sexually abused. To tackle the problem, Nonceba developed a two-pronged approach:
1. Victim Support through Counselling
2. Abuse Prevention through Education 1. The Child Victim Support Services provide assistance, intervention and counselling for children under the age of 18 who have been sexually abused, physically abused or neglected. These programmes ensure that the child receives the appropriate medical and psychological support they need, for both the crisis stage and long term healing. In support of these services there are two residential shelters. One looks after children who have to be taken into care because they are at risk of further abuse and the other is a family unit for where both mother and child have been victims of abuse. 2. The Child Abuse Prevention Education Programme is intended to make children safer by making them – and the community – aware of how abuse can happen; how to prevent it and how to deal with it when it happens. This work is done in schools, public halls, churches and through local media and with increasing awareness and support in the community, is proving most effective. Please follow the links to find out how it all started, what services we provide and what our needs are and how you can help. It is our sincere belief that this project is having a profound effect on thousands of young lives. We earnestly hope that our aim of saving children from child sexual abuse will be an aim which you will feel able to help us achieve. As part of a programme to raise awareness of the problem, Hazel Black, the project director, took a group of youngsters from Hertzlia School in Cape Town out to the centre. One of the pupils was a 16 year old called Ashley Kaimowitz and she was overwhelmed by what she saw. (see Ashley's story) She then proceeded to make a movie to raise funds for the centre and as a Rotary exchange student showed her film wherever she could. Tragically, Ashley was killed in a road accident at 19 but her family decided to fulfill her commitment to Nonceba and help raise funds to build a proper centre which could better address the problems of child sexual abuse. In April 2008, the new centre was opened and the services to the community took a giant leap. 
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29 Tanga St. Eyethu. Khayelitsha. email: admin@nonceba.org
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