Our Achievements in 2011
- Chesterville Clinic: 2011 saw The Jes Foord Foundation spending over R70 000 to fund the building of The Jes Foord Community Care Centre in the Chesterville Community. The centre will be used as a multipurpose counselling centre for the residents of Chesterville. The centre was launched and handed over the local church organisation Vukukhanye, who will be running the centre. The facility includes counselling room as well as child play therapy facilities. Part of the funding was spent on the creation of vegetable gardens around the centre, helping it to become self sustainable, and more useful to the community.
- Bobbi Bear Housing Units: Operation Bobbi Bear moved into their newly built home this year, but unfortunately ran out of money before they could complete the housing units that would be used as a place of safety for the children that they rescue. JFF donated R30 000 to complete and open 3 of the room.
- Slut walk: JFF hosted the first Durban Chapter of the International Movement, Slutwalk. This movement was started in Canada following comments made by a Canadian Officer that a young woman was asking to be raped because of what she was wearing. Over 500 people gathered in the Durban City Centre to march in solidarity and to send the message, “no matter where she goes, no matter what she wears, a woman does not deserve to be raped.”
- Handbag Project: The Handbag Project, an initiative started by JFF, continued to grow in 2011, with a branch opening in Gauteng. Over 2000 handbags were distributed to Centres throughout KZN and Gauteng, with over 10 000 handbags coming in. The challenge we now face is ensuring a steady supply of toiletries to fill these handbags, a challenge that we are confident we will overcome in 2012
- Cinderella Project: This project, although not officially launched, has picked up speed in 2011 with over 300 dresses being brought into the Centre during the last 4 months of the year. The dresses will be loaned out to underprivilaged girls who cannot afford their own dance dresses.
- Counselling Service: JFF opened its free counselling service in July 2011, with a group of 8 Inter Registered Counsellors. From July to December 2011 the counsellors gave over 125 hours of free counselling to our Survivors. The Foundation has also employed a full time counsellor to oversee our counselling service, and ensure our service levels are maintained
- Jes Foord Netcare Centre: In June 2011, The Jes Foord Foundation partnered with St Augustines Hospital to launch The Jes Foord Netcare Centre. This Centre operates 24 hours a day and is open to all rape victims. A victim is seen to by a trained nurse, a trained Doctor uses an official rape kit to collect the evidence, all medical treatment and medicine is given for free. The police are called to The Centre to collect the victims’ statement, and collect the rape kit. A JFF counsellor is called out to debrief the victim and offer ongoing counselling. This service is entirely 100% free. The Centre was nominated for and won a 2011 HASA award(Hospital Association of South Africa)
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Our plans for 2012
We are expecting a very busy 2012 with numerous marketing and fundraising activities planned. From a service delivery side we are expecting to meet the following goals:
- Distribute 5000 handbags through our Handbag Project, providing rape survivors with the necessary toiletries to get and feel clean after a rape.
- Loan out 500 dresses through our Cinderella Project to Matric girls who cannot afford their own Matric Dance dresses.
- Initiate The Green Light Brigade Road Show. Travelling through the poorest communities and providing education on Rape and what to do when you’ve been rape, women’s rights, Aids, and the importance of education.
- Incorporate a survivor support group into our counselling program, allowing us to offer a more comprehensive support system for a survivor.
- Child Protection Room. We are currently engaging with the Pinetown courts to allow us to open our Child Protection Room. This room will act as a safe haven for children awaiting trial, to testify in their own cases. There will be educational toys for the children as well as snack packs
- We aim to raise the funding for 25 educational talks, at 25 underprivileged schools this year, at a cost of R50 000.
- Initiate plans to equip Police Stations with a fully function ID Parade room. We aim to have the first room set up by the end of 2013 at a cost of R100 000.
- Open a second Community Care Centre. Our first centre open in 2011, in Chesterville, and we aim to open a similar centre in the upper highway area.
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