Welcome To St Andrew's Church, Newlands, Cape Town

Child Abuse Treatment And Prevention Centre

The central office of Safeline is in Athlone, but it has 3 satellite operations in Delft, Lavender Hill and Mitchell’s Plain.
There are 10 professional social and community workers in these centres. Each worker is involved with approximately 30 clients at any one time.

Much of their work is focused on the local schools where they run programmes and workshops to raise awareness of child abuse. In particular, the teaching staff are instructed in the handling of abused children, while the children and parents are alerted to the possibilities of child abuse and so are enabled to identify it.

The other side of their work is directly with abused children whom they help by means of play therapy and preparation for court appearances. This involves addressing their fear of the perpetrator, parental attitudes and the court scene. Dolls and puppets are used to help the child express its experiences of abuse. One of the pictures shows some of these puppets.

The Athlone centre has a small garden which is currently being developed by some ladies of St Andrew’s who are part of a garden club. This garden will provide a cheerful forecourt in which there is a sandpit for the children and a play area where they can enjoy the therapy of physical activity.

St Andrew’s provides Safeline with 20 HIV/AIDS food parcels every month. They are given to families in which there is economic hardship and malnutrition. Unemployment is the norm and these packs are never enough to address the need. Safeline is also receptive to rummage. Their main thrust is work with children although, in the past, they also helped a number of adults who were victims of abuse. Now these adults are referred to other treatment centres.