Social workers make a difference in informal communities
CRESTA – Trauma victims from informal settlements are provided with counselling by social workers from the Centre for Social Services and Counselling.
NORTHCLIFF – The Centre for Social Services and Counselling offers counselling to people from informal settlements who have experienced trauma.
The organisation’s founder and director Esau Mudau said he was inspired to start the organisation in 2010 with a board of directors, when he discovered that a number of individuals from informal settlements experience trauma. The organisation focused on the Mathole Village in Roodepoort, Zandspruit in Honeydew and Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion.
“I did research on different communities. I discovered the unemployment rate, poverty and abuse rate is high in communities where most of the people come from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Mudau.
Mudau described that their organisation is linked to various churches in the areas that they target and that is how they raise awareness about the services in communities. They are reliant on donations from churches in the communities that they work with, and from organisations.
“We offer counselling to children of divorced parents, abused children, victims of domestic abuse and elderly citizens. Our organisation has a team of qualified trauma counsellors, psychologists and social workers who are dedicated to helping others,” described Mudau.
The organisation has future plans of opening a medical and trauma centre in all the areas that they work in. Mudau encouraged people to volunteer their time and ways to raise funds to help more communities.
The organisation is in the process of moving from their offices in Fairland to Northcliff.
