We focus on turning victims into survivors and provide services and support in five thematic areas:

• HIV/AIDS
• child abuse
• domestic violence
• sexual assault
• LGBTI/vulnerable minorities.

Since 2001, we have assisted thousands of people with our educational workshops, dialogues, and campaigns. We firmly believe that there is “no excuse for abuse” or discrimination and we work every day in our communities to spread that message and empower communities to change from within.

We are located in the far north east corner of South Africa, in a district called Vhembe. Vhembe is part of the Limpopo province and we take our name from one of the larger towns in the area, Thohoyandou. We focus most of our efforts in the immediate vicinity of Thohoyandou, but some of our projects take us to other parts of Limpopo (and even as far afield as Uganda).

In the Thohoyandou Policing District where we do most of our work, there are an average of 100 reported incidents of domestic violence and 45 reported rapes per month. In addition, the HIV prevalence is about 13% and the conviction rate for rape cases is only about 2.8% of all cases opened (May 2015-April 2016).

We provide support, prevention, and empowerment services in each of the five thematic areas in which we work. On the support end of the spectrum, we provide counselling, shelter, and 1:1 pyscho-social and legal support through our Trauma Centres, Help Desks, and Access to Justice sectors. We also run a variety of prevention and empowerment programmes focused around reducing sexual and gender-based violence, empowering victims and minorities, and reducing the spread of HIV.