Support flows in for rape centre
Diepsloot’s Green Door, a help service for victims of sexual violence, gets a boost, writes
Donations for victims of sexual abuse in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, have been pouring in after the Mail & Guardian’s article on women and child rape last week.
The story, “Diepsloot: Where men think it’s their right to rape”, highlighted the work of the Green Door, a Diepsloot-based organisation counselling women and children and providing them with hamper packs.
After reading the article, Giuliana Bland, a childhood development specialist from Johannesburg, com- munications strategist Sarah Britten and the organisation Capacitate South Africa launched a Twitter campaign to raise donations for the Green Door.
Four carloads of women’s and children’s clothes, toys, sanitary towels, soap and nonperishable food have so far been collected.
In the M&G story, rape counsellor Brown Lekekela requested donations of a kettle and microwave for the small Wendy house from which Green Door operates.
As part of its 67 minutes for Mandela project for 2015, media company Frayintermedia donated these, and a laptop Lekekela can use for Green Door’s administration.
Donations have also been flowing in from as far afield as the United States and Germany. Nkosi’s Haven, the nongovernmental organisation that offers help to HIV-infected mothers and their children, has donated clothes, food and toys.
Lekekela said: “I’m so grateful for the assistance. The hamper packs are of great help to the women and children who knock on our door. They mostly have nothing.
“Other than counselling, we can’t offer them anything. The few items they get in the hamper packs make them feel worth something.
“We will now also be able to offer the victims some coffee and tea, because we have a kettle, and will be able to warm up food for them in the microwave.”
According to Bland, the Leader– ship and Innovation Network for Collaboration in the Children’s Sector (Linc), which consists of about 100 influential childhood professionals, has convened a meeting for later this month in which they will discuss a “sustainable strategy” to support sexually abused child victims.
“Rather than just one-off donations, we would like to provide longterm support and also help Lekekela to get Green Door registered as a nonprofit that can apply for funding,” Bland said.
Media monitoring and evaluation specialist William Bird, who is also part of Linc, said: “We want to use this article to make people across different sectors, including government, aware of the huge problem and to get them to do something to combat these crimes — child sexual abuse is not just a problem in Diepsloot, but all over South Africa.
“We need to get all political parties to act on this article. If they don’t, we need to hold them accountable and ask them why they did not act. And that’s exactly what we’re planning to do. Watch this space,” Bird said.