WHERE WE WORK > SOUTH AFRICA

Empowering families to fight discrimination and poverty  

The Akhanani (which means building up each other) Good Shepherd mission in South Africa aims to promote the well-being and safety of girls and children in the most disadvantaged areas of the Eastern Cape Province, through care and protection services and through holistic empowerment of local families by improving women’s economic status and parenting skills. Various interventions are being carried out as a response to very high levels of poverty, unemployment, dysfunctional families that reflected in numbers of single parents and child-headed families, teenage pregnancies, and also large rate of school drop-outs, alcohol and drug abuse, persons caught in sexual commercial exploitation, illness and diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS.  

Activities

The project is implemented in the suburbs of the city of Port Elisabeth and includes activities focusing on eradicating poverty through empowerment of girls, women and children and addressing issues of gender-based violence. 

• Children care and education services:  A feeding scheme has been set out to meet the needs of malnourished children and to improve their health. The project provides school tutoring to help children in their studies and group activities such as dancing, singing, drama etc. to enhance interaction and build a sense of community between different races and cultures. Children can enjoy a safe space that makes their schooling career successful and enhance their development and well-being, reducing school drop-outs and teenage pregnancies. 

• Women empowerment through capacity building. The training centre provides training skills such as sewing, bead work, hard craft (recycling) and cooking to empower women and improve their economic status through capacity development. Women are sensitized also on parental/family life skills aimed at reducing children maltreatment and creating a more stimulating home environment for their development.  

• Welfare services to girls, women and children for trauma recovery. To better understand the environment where the children, the girls and the women live and to assist them in improving their conditions home visits are organized. Thanks to partnership with other NGOs and civil society organizations, the project informs people living in the area on the available welfare services, that strengthen the family as a unit enable individuals and members to prevent personal and family problems and to deal with them when they arise.  

PROJECTS LOCATIONS

Port Elisabeth 

HIGHLIGHTS

1

Projects

250

Beneficiaries

–

Local staff

AREAS OF INTERVENTION

Human Rights

Girls and Women's Empowerment

Community Strengthening and participation