GEORGE NEWS - The Seven Passes Initiative along with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) will benefit from a three-year, multi-million rand commitment by fashion dealer, Jet to support the implementation and scaling up of interventions shown to reduce and prevent violence.
Jet, the discount division of Edcon, announced the news at a dinner held on Wednesday at Bistro Celeiro in Diep River near Wilderness.
The Seven Passes Initiative will use the funds to strengthen the programmes offered to high school and primary school children in the afternoons and during the holidays.
Parenting programmes will also be extended to include the nearby community of Wilderness Heights, where the organisation has not worked before.
Wilmi Dippenaar, director of the Seven Passes Initiative, said when they started their programmes 10 years ago, there were no graduates in their community.
"We started with nine children attending our homework classes. Today more than 340 children come to our programmes every afternoon.
"Ten young people have gone on to university, and many more have enrolled at FET colleges."
Naizel Buys, chairperson of the Seven Passes board, was one of the first young people to come to the homework classes offered by the Seven Passes Initiative.
She is now a qualified teacher and teaches Grade 4 at the Touwsranten Primary School.
She plays a key leadership role in the organisation and the community.
Invest in mothers
Edcon's general manager for transformation and corporate social investment, Elelwane Pahlana, said that personal safety is a key concern for all South Africans, and especially low-income single mothers.
At the dinner where Jet's financial commitment to the Seven Passes Initiative was celebrated are from left Dr Chandre Gould (senior research fellow in the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the Institute for Security Studies), Naizel Buys (chairperson: Seven Passes Initiative), Elelwane Pahlana (Edcon general manager: Transformation) and Wilmi Dippenaar (director: Seven Passes Initiative).
"They are among the most vulnerable and suffer the highest incidence of personal violence. We all need South Africa to be the best place in the world to raise a child.
"Family is the core of the economy and we believe that an investment in mothers is an investment in the future."
She said crime and violence directly hamper economic growth, and significantly hamper the ability of South Africans to realise their potential.
"Programmes designed to help parents form strong, loving relationships with their children, and keep children stimulated and safe outside of school hours, as well as programmes that promote gender equality are key to preventing and reducing the high levels of violence we experience in South Africa."
Dialogue Forum
Pahlana said the unacceptably high level of violence in the country is destroying the fabric of society.
"Innovative solutions are required to solve the problem and we are honoured to be able to help."
Part of the initial investment by Jet was used to fund the National Violence Prevention Dialogue Forum meeting, held in Touwsranten last week.
Senior research fellow in the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the ISS, Dr Chandre Gould, said to make a real difference the best possible programmes must be implemented in places where they are needed most.
"This requires strong, effective partnerships between communities, government, academia and non-governmental organisations."
The bridges the gap between academics and NGOs who have developed and tested violence prevention programmes, and the practitioners and officials who are responsible for providing services to clients in communities around the country.
"It is a productive and safe space for discussion and information sharing across sectors," said Gould.
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