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>View discussions about this entry Country: South Africa
Organization: Sithabile Child & Youth Care Center
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2003
Project URL: http://www.sithabile.com
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - We assist young people who are trafficked to be contributing members of society by placing them in education (school, college or skills development) and training them to be activists who teach other young people about the human trafficking.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - a) Once young people (both boys and girls) are brought into our safe house, we integrate them into a family home as the project is modeled on family life with parents and older siblings.
b) Young people are coupled with peers using the buddy system to ensure that they are able to feel at home and have someone to talk to who is of a similar age. c) We help them debrief through our suitcase project art programme, this way they are able to open up about their experience at their own pace d) We work with government departments, local South African NGO’s, inter-governmental organizations, UN agencies and NGO’s from the SADC region to promote collaboration in fully supporting the young people in either remaining legally in South Africa or being safely repatriated to their countries of origin. Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - As this is a very sensitive area of work, we have a small dedicated staff, that is trained in child & youth care, counseling, training & development and advocacy work.
Obtaining legal status for victims from outside South Africa is a challenge. We have a group of peer educators (12- 24) who are made up of both victims and social advocates who raise awareness in schools, churches and broader community about human trafficking and the human cost to our country. How do you plan to grow your innovation? - We would like to move the safe house to a semi rural setting where the rescued victims have more space and we are able to set up workshops for more skills development program. We would like to use the current safe house location as a halfway house for victims who are ready to exit the programme and enter the mainstream community and find work once they finish their education and training.
We would like our staff to become trained in investigation, basic legal training to be able to prepare our victims to interact with legal proceedings and we would like to train personnel from more government institutions from the dept. of education, social development, police, home affairs, international affairs and health as the well being of victims is affected by the knowledge these stakeholders have. Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - We work with the TDH partners, IOM, the South African National Prosecuting Authority, Southern African Network on Abuse and Trafficking of children, ECPAT International, Global March Against Child Labour, South African Council of Churches and FIDA-SA.
For some of the organizations we have had collaborative working relationships, have done programmes together or through training and development work. Our other partners assist in locating families in countries of origin or house victims in their children’s homes in countries of origin once young people are repatriated. Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - We provide education, a home and reintegrate victims of trafficking into the broader community.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - Life Orientation Teachers trained in the Eastern Cape plan to incorporate trafficking as one of the learning areas in their teaching. We feel more vulnerable young people from the rural parts of South Africa will be educated about the scourge of trafficking.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - Young women 95% from African countries (DRC, RWANDA, ANGOLA, MOZAMBIQUE, ZIMBABWE, MALAWI, LESOTHO, SWAZILAND) Asia (THAILAND) and internally from South Africa
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - We have been financing the initiative through grants from TDH for the safe house for the last year, training & development from OAK FOUNDATION through ECPAT INTERNATIONAL
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: • Annual budget – We do not have a working annual budget as it is projects that are funded. • Annual revenue generated • Number of staff (3 boxes: full-time, part-time, volunteers) – Our staff work on a voluntary basis. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - We are being requested to replicate our model in two border areas of South Africa (Mpumalanga & Limpopo)
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - A lot of funders fund HIV and AIDS projects in South Africa. There is not enough information on human trafficking in South Africa.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - I was working for ECPAT International where I developed a training program to raise awareness on trafficking of children and youths in Southern Africa. Through the workshops with immigration officials and awareness raising activities in the community we realized a need to set up a safe house for victims as there were no places for victims to turn to even if they were rescued or managed to escape. Through collaboration with TDH and IOM we set up the safe house for victims who were being found through raids conducted by these institutions in partnership with the SAPS.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - I am a child rights activist who has international experience in a number of different countries in the southern hemisphere. My work has been concentrated on Child Labour and related issues such as commercial sexual exploitation of children. My ability and efficiency as an advocate for issues affecting young people is notable in that it gained me recognition from the First Lady of South Africa in 2005, when she asked me to serve as an advisor to a team of women lawyers from South Africa attending an international women lawyers conference in Malaysia. I have since served as an advisor to her Excellency; Mrs Mbheki, on issues on trafficking.
Contact Information:
Nandi Msezani
Project Coordinator Sithabile Child & Youth Care Center (NGO) sithabilehome@gmail.com Mailing Address: P.O. Box 8477, Putfontein, 1513, South Africa City: Benoni Region/State: Gauteng South Africa Tel: + 27 11 969 5938 Website: www.sithabile.com Discussions about this entry |
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Dear Nandi Msezani;
It sounds like the Sithabile Child & Youth Care Center is doing a lot to assist survivors of trafficking in South Africa. The peer mentor system is very innovative. Are these other girls who are living in the house? What are the roles and responsibilities of the mentor towards her mentee? The family home is another interesting and creative idea. Can you expand a little more on this component of the project? How are these homes chosen? What is the trainning for the "parents"? Also- I was wondering how long the programme is and if your organization is still able to assist girls and boys who want to immediately be reunited with their parents.
I look forward to hearing more!
Laura Cardinal
Public Health and Human Trafficking Specialist