2011 Report - Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children

CENTRE DIRECTOR - Synnøv Skorge
As I am writing this report I received the news that another
of our partner organisations is closing its doors due to
financial constraints. In 2007, just four years ago, Saartjie
Baartman Centre consisted of a partnership of sixteen
organisations providing a formidable range of specialised
services including counselling, job-skills, outreach and
advocacy work. Now, in 2011, we have only five partner
organisations working with us.
The funding crisis has hit the civil society sector hard over
the past few years, especially organisations providing direct
services in the gender-based violence sector. It is a serious
situation as levels of violence against women and children
are actually increasing and far more services are needed
as well as real input, support and co-ordination from all
sectors of society to successfully combat the current crisis
situation. Recent research undertaken in Gauteng shows
that 51% of women in the study experienced some form of
violence and 78.3% of men admitted to perpetrating some
form of violence against women (MRC & Gender Links.
2010). More than 56 272 rapes were reported to police in
2010/2011. The Gauteng study, however, suggests that only
one in 25 rapes is reported annually and approximately
only 50% of survivors of GBV report it to the police.
We have worked hard on our funding strategy, motivating
for more funding from government, the corporate sector
and building up our internal income-generating projects.
However, despite all efforts we are currently in a position
whereby 48% of our annual funding comes from the
National Lotteries Board and funding from provincial
government has dropped to 31% for the current financial
year. It has been encouraging to have received significant
support from the corporate sector this year for the Madiba
Saartjie Baartman
Centre Reports
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Day and National Women’s Day and we are hopeful that
the corporate sector will expand their support and become
core funders of our projects.
Over the past years, the Centre has had a significant increase
in the number of women and children coming to the centre
for assistance, often in life-threatening situations. We have
always been, and continue to be, totally determined to keep
up with the demands and expectations of our clients even in
the light of shrinking resources. In order to achieve this, the
Centre embarked on a restructuring process towards the end
of 2010 aimed at increasing our capacity to provide services,
especially in the counselling and legal advice projects and
maintain our residential (shelter) programme, research and
awareness-raising and advocacy work. The restructuring
was a challenging process that resulted in the retrenchment
of six staff members and changes to some staff positions
in January 2011. This year has been about building up,
implementing and fine-tuning the new structure. The newly
created empowerment programme came into effect in March
2011 and is proving to be effective to the development and
support of the Centre’s direct services. I am very happy to
report that we have successfully negotiated this process and
are enjoying the revamped, re-energised and more efficient
Saartjie Baartman Centre!
STaff NewS
We bid farewell to the following staff members: Rosemarie
Cox, Rachel Petersen, Thembeka Ncanywa, Gairo Waja,
Phumza Manzana, Benita Goliath, Christine Thomas,
Alice Jaftha and Deirdre Malgas. Our heartfelt thanks and
appreciation for their contribution to the Centre over the
years. Special thanks to Rosemarie Cox and Rachel Petersen
who were part of the pioneering staff team that started the
SBC shelter in 1999.
2011 Annual Review
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