Rape Crisis pioneered the first containment counselling service at Cape Town’s inaugural Thuthuzela Care Centre, a model now adopted nationwide. Sue Segar visited staff at the soon to be 50-year-old organisation’s three offices and spoke with a rape survivor who has since become a volunteer at their Khayelitsha branch.
South Africa has notoriously high rates of rape and gender-based violence. Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) – one-stop facilities which provide support for rape and other GBV victims – are making a difference. But 63 TCCs, the current number in operation, is not enough, says two local experts.
Mary Selona, a community activist who heads up the Blood River Advice Centre in Limpopo, is putting women at the centre in her quest for social justice. Whether it is intervening when women are refused PrEP at clinics or in more immediate life-threatening situations relating to gender-based violence, Selona is leading from the front. Ufrieda Ho spoke to her as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
