CASE STUDY: Contributing to a Resilient and Sustainable Society through Women Empowerment
By raising the next generation, South African women are the foundation upon which our country rests. Despite this fundamental role, SA women experience rates of domestic violence that are five times higher than the global average. Studies show, that when women are disempowered, the very social fabric upon which a country rests are threatened.
According to a 2018 “Crime Against Women in South Africa Report” from Statistics SA, a woman is murdered every three hours. These statistics may seem disheartening, but a Cape Town based service called the Counselling Hub (a division of the SACAP Foundation), provides affordable counselling sessions to marginalized, battered and abused women in an attempt to help them rebuild their lives.
The SACAP Foundation is a non-profit organization working towards the provision of accessible and affordable mental health services for low-income earners. Their aim is to build emotionally strong individuals that can say ‘no’ to violence against women and children, and break the cycle of abuse. Unfortunately, many women who would benefit from this service are full-time mothers that rely on their abusive spouses for financial survival.
In order to address this problem, Five Tulips, in partnership with two corporate clients: Denis Consulting (a division of EoH Health) and BDO (an auditing, tax and corporate advisory practitioner), recently sponsored 100 counselling sessions for unemployed women and mothers who are unable to recover emotionally from years of abuse. The consortium is immensely proud of this initiative as it provides a means to help build a resilient and sustainable society by empowering women to stand up for their rights and thus significantly reduce all forms of gender-based violence (SDG16).
The financial contribution was issued to the Counselling Hub on 10 October, on World Mental Health Day and forms part of an ongoing initiative. For more information, or to join the partnership, contact Yolanda Gossel at yolanda@fivetulips.com.
About the Counselling Hub
The Counselling Hub is an initiative of the SACAP Foundation, a non-profit organisation working towards providing accessible affordable mental health services, and the KK Educational Fund (KKEF). According to the organization, there is a significant gap in access to mental health care, with about 2.75 psychologists for every 100 000 people available in the public sector, yet, the need for quality mental health services is widespread in low-income communities. The Hub aims to address this gap with the help of corporate partners and volunteers.
About the Author:
Yolanda Gossel is the Founder and Programme Director at Five Tulips, a South African based sustainability and corporate social investment (CSI) consultancy. Five Tulips forges partnerships between communities, public and private sectors and individuals for social upliftment and preservation of our planets resources and ecosystems.
To connect with me visit:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yolandagossel005/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Fivetulips