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Why we exist

“South Africa is one country that is suffering from a surge in sexual violence, even though it has one of the best constitutional and legal frameworks in the world for human rights, including violence against women. After the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, and during its transition towards democracy, South Africa experienced a rapid increase in reported rapes. South African rape statistics are now among the highest in the world. …. child rape in South Africa has reached "epidemic proportions". One-third of reported rapes between January and September 2001 were of children between zero and 11 years of age”.

Julie Bindel
The New Statesman
5th March 2010

We are the only UK-based organisation exclusively setting out to break the cycle of violence and abuse against small children in South Africa.

Our work is having a significant impact on communities as people feel more able to identify and report suspected abuse of small children

Quick Updates

  • The World Cup

    Many of us, in recent weeks, have been caught up in the choice between lauding the amazing efforts to pull-off an incredible and inspirational tournament, or being a killjoy by simply telling the truth about what life is really like for millions of people in South Africa and how rape, violence, poverty and illness doesn’t stop for a few football games, and won’t change in the future unless we continue to work with and support local NGOs.

    However, now that the competition is over the news about the reality of living in South Africa for many millions of people is beginning to surface again

    1.      South Africa and the FIFA world cup – a real perspective http://www.pamil-visions.net/south-africa-world-cup-in-real-perspectiv/216641/

    2.      The problems of rural South Africa - http://foreign.peacefmonline.com/sports/201007/58713.php

    3.      ‘Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Civil Society, which ran a World Cup Watch project, says: "The elite have pulled off bread and circuses for the masses. We live in one of the most unequal societies in the world, and we've just seen an amplification of that inequality. The costs will become increasingly clear."’   Mail & Guardian online July 12th 2010

  • Read our new newsletter, and what has been going on over the last few months; you can also download our new strategic direction document, (but ** warning ** it is very large). Because of the size and its importance to us, a very kindly donor offered to pay for the printing at no cost to us…. so we can let you have a full paper copy of both publications. Just let us know which [or both] you would like, and an address.

  • Cries from the beloved country
    Child rape in South Africa has reached epidemic proportions... in an excellent article from the UK Sunday Times on May 30th Dan McDougall explores some of the reasons for the high incidence of child rape in South Africa

  • Report of Lesley's visit in March

  • How you can support our work

 

South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, including child and baby rape, with one child estimated to be raped every 26 seconds according to aid groups and local organisations. In the shanty town of Khayelitsha, a sprawling, crime-ridden township of some 500,000 people near Cape Town, most of the victims are children under the age of 10. Only a fraction of all actual rape cases are reported and many activists say rape has reached epidemic proportions in the country.

Credit: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly http://www.reuters.com/news
18th February 2010

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What one volunteer wrote....

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