Victim Empowerment Centre opens
Victims of crime in Mayville will now be able to get treatment at the new Victim Empowerment Centre at the police station.
A NEW Victim Empowerment Centre was officially opened at Mayville SAPS on Friday 6 June.
Speaking at the opening, Col Carel Grobler, acting cluster commander, said it was long overdue that Mayville SAPS had its own trauma centre where community victims of crime could benefit from such a service..
“It is so disheartening going through stats and seeing a three-year-old who has been raped. There are a lot of victims of crime who need help from a centre like this and I thank the Lord we can now have our own Victim Empowerment Centre. The provision of a facility to help victims of crime should be applauded, but it’s a work in progress, and it needs to be made a success,” he said.
Jes Foord, rape survivor, spoke at the opening. She mentioned that when she was gang raped there was no victim empowerment centre for her to go to, which prompted her to establish the Jes Foord Foundation in 2008.
“The foundation has just grown, and it warms my heart to be able to work with organisations in these sorts of initiatives. We will be involved in the Mayville centre with our handbag project, where victims of rape will be given handbags full of toiletries. I believe women need to clean up on the outside after these incidents, before they can get clean on the inside. It is an honour to be involved and the centre is going to make a huge difference to people in the community,” she said.
Speaking at the opening, Mayville SAPS’s Col Wilson Luthuli said he had met Jes Foord at St Augustine’s Hospital some years ago and told her he had battled to find someone to help in the centre at the Mayville police station. He then met Siyabonga Nzimande, who had a vision for this centre.
Siyabonga is a pastor who is involved with the Hope2Educate organisation. Siyabonga and his group provide lifestyle education to young people in Grade 10 to 12 in local schools.
“Working in schools there were so many young people coming out to say they had been raped, and we felt we had to do something about it. We looked at Jes Foord Foundation’s website to see how we could help. Nehemiah 1:3 speaks of the walls of Jerusalem being broken down, we believe the walls of the heart are being torn down on a daily basis and we need to stand up and tell people they can get help. We are so excited this centre is opening in Mayville, especially during Child Protection Week,” said Siyabonga.
