South Africa has the highest rate of death by domestic violence in the world. The latest data from the South African Police Service showed that 20 336 people were murdered in 2017/18. The majority of the murder victims were adult men and 2 930 were adult women. The murder rate for adult women is calculated using the number of victims from the police and population estimates from Stats SA. The World Health Organization (WHO) calculates a femicide rate based on deaths from interpersonal violence for the whole female population, including women and girls.
Child Welfare in partnership with the Sahara Shelter for Abused Women and Children, will be spreading awareness and fighting violence against women and children during the 16 Days of Activism. According to, Analisa Naidu, Social Worker from Phoneix Sun “Our plans include having an advice desk at various clinics around the Phoenix area. We kicked off the campaign with an advice desk at Canalside Clinic on November 25. The advice desk also took place at Grove-End Clinic and Stonebridge Clinic on November 26 and 27 respectively,” she said. The group of ladies will also host a placard demonstration at the Phoenix Plaza robots from 12pm where they will be walking from KFC to the Starwood Spar and back. They also plan to observe World Aids Day on December 2 and another placard demonstration will be hosted at the Mount Edgecombe robots from 8 am
The shelter promotes a safe haven for victims of abuse but seeks to empower and uplift women through various skills development programmes such as, baking, fabric painting, beadwork and sewing skills which are taught by skilled facilitators. These skills are taught to women by skilled facilitators. Once the women are admitted into the shelter, they are immediately linked to the social worker who conducts the intake procedure at the shelter culminating in care-plan for clients and the admission is done by SAPS and the local child welfare. The residents are made aware of their rights and responsibilities, counselled on how to go about obtaining a protection order, provided with individual therapeutic counselling, as well as reunification services with their families.
