Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Stemming the tide of violence
10 Women make a difference for victims, offenders
TWO Cape Town women agree that with rehabilitation and support, victims and perpetrators of violent crime can live more meaningful and fulfilling lives.
Joy Lange of Bridgetown, Athlone, spends her days advocating for the rights of women and for women in crisis to heal and to become positive parents and citizens.
Lange started a career in finance and moved through various roles in the corporate sector before joining St Anne’s Homes as a board member and now as the executive director of the organisation.
She said St Anne’s assisted women between the ages of 19 and 35 who have small children or are pregnant, homeless or in the process of leaving an abusive partner and therefore need emergency and temporary shelter.
On arrival at St Anne’s, the women’s basic needs of food and toiletries are met before they are assessed, counselled and oriented to life at the home. Children also receive an assessment and are enrolled in early childhood development programmes, she said.
“We put our residents on various empowerment programmes to help them go from brokenness to wholeness,” said Lange.
She said they do not give handouts to the women but teach their residents skills such as sewing, candle-making and painting and they are prepared for jobs.
“We have found that some of the women grew up with poor parenting themselves and need positive parenting skills,”she said.
St Anne’s offers shelter, food and social support to women who have been abused, those who are destitute and pregnant and those with children below the age of 5.
The home has been in operation for 114 years.
Lange said there was positive change in children within days of interacting with a play therapist and there is a 80-90% success rate in rehabilitating abused women.
St Anne’s also assists women with court processes where necessary.
While Lange dedicates her
OPINION
life to assisting survivors of abuse and women in crisis, another woman dedicates hers rehabilitating those at odds with the law.
Jacquline Hoorn witnessed violent and petty crime while growing up in Seawinds, Retreat, before she decided to pursue studies as a social worker.
But it was experience while on duty three years go that caught her attention most.
She said she had been driving a marked work car on her way from Pollsmoor Prison when an unknown assailant smashed the passenger window and made off with her handbag.
“We had had break- ins before, but nothing as personal as this,” she said recounting her ordeal.
“I was shaking with shock and anger. I could not understand why I was targeted until I spoke to the inmates, trying to learn from them,” she said.
The inmates told her not to take the matter personally, but to accept that she fitted the profile of the victim in the criminal’s mind at that moment.
“That incident helped me understand a little bit more about crime. Now I am more aware about my own lifestyle choices and that offenders are human like you and me,” Hoorn said.
Hoorn is the Western Cape area manager of the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro), which turns 108 next month.
She heads a team of eight social workers, six auxiliary social workers and administrative staff who carry out programmes such as crime prevention at schools, assessment of offenders, diverting child, youth and first-time offenders from the formal criminal justice system and counselling to reduce re-offending.
“Nicro specialises in social crime prevention and renders life-changing services to approximately 12 000 to 15 000 beneficiaries each year,” she said.
Hoorn said through its programmes, Nicro seeks to provide personal development opportunities to offenders as well as to help families and communities support offenders to turn their lives around.
“We believe excessive use of pre-trial detention in South Africa is a massive form of human rights abuse. We propose alternatives such as diversion and community-based sentencing for inmates,” Hoorn said.
noloyiso.mtembu@inl.co.za