Mandela Day, 18 July in Cape Town

We had a fun day painting Fish Hoek FCS Unit with The Vital Foundation volunteers.

Below: The "Before", the blank canvas......

As you might know, the child friendly facilities at the police stations really make a huge difference to the hurt children when they have to disclose about the traumatic events around their abuse. Before we implemented these facilities, they were exposed to secondary abuse by people not trained to work with children. Now, they can feel safe in a room that is specifically designed around their needs - with toys, pictures on the walls, and a safe, sensitive person who will assist them in this very difficult task of talking about their hurtful experience.


Below Captain Orphen from SAPS Fish Hoek is painting a butterfly on the wall. She has such a passion for helping children. In the Vital Foundation Red shirt is Pippa Beaumont.

Below from left to right: Jonty Low, Pippa Beaumont, Captain Orphen, Captain Abigail Golding, Sgt. Smit, Monique Strydom, Chantel van Wyk, Christell Weyers and Seugnet Robson.

Thanks Vital Foundation for all your help!

Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation. --Nelson Mandela, National Men's March, 1997

We are back in full force

Since our Facebook site started running and was proven to be so popular, we have decided not to focus on a blogsite anymore. But it seems that many of you still wanted to visit us and read up more on our projects. So, here we are - back again!

From today onwards you will be able to reading more about our projects on this site - whilst our Facebook will have more on your questions and news updates. Please make sure that you like our Facebook site too if you have not done so already!

To introduce the MAB team to all of you:
Monique Strydom - CEO and also Manager of Western Cape Projects (and rest of the country)

Lizel Van Eeden is our project manager in Gauteng and also Mpumalanga

Christell Weyers will join us in the Cape Town Office as our Getting Conversation Going Marketing expert! Her appointment was made possible by the contribution of the Vodacom Change the World Project.

Then we will be saying goodbye to our trustee in the USA, Prof Lize Booysen - who added many valuable contributions throughout the years.

And we would also like to welcome our new trustees - Dr Corne Davis (UJ) and Mr Roger Latchman (Business Executive). We hope you are going to enjoy the time with us, but more importantly know that your contribution will have a huge impact on the lives of many children.

Last year Matla A Bana was 13 years old and our projects reached more than 20 000 children. We hope that in the next 13 years our work will help many thousands more and we will dedicate all our talents to give a voice to those who do not have a voice!

Clearwater Mall Trolley Race

MAB was once again the beneficiary of the Trolley Race hosted at Clearwater Mall by the Lions.

Our team consisting of some eager young men and a  young beauty queen also won the race!! Well done MAB team and thank you to all the sponsors!

Legal Wise helps with comfort packs

We would like to thank the staff of Legal Wise in Bellville who donated a huge box full of goodies for our comfort pack project on Mandela Day.

Conquering Mountains Women's Day Breakfast

 Lizel, Julie, Jacques (PSASA), Monique & Rianette

On 14 August MAB hosted the first of a series of breakfasts with some of the top speakers in South Africa. This was made possible by the support of the Public Speaker's Association of South Africa (MAB is the chosen charity of the chairman) and City Lodge Sandton.

Julie Filmer, mountain climber and survivor of many challenges, was the guest speaker and judging by the response of all the guests, this series is going to be  great success.

Our next event will take place in November.

Mandela Day Gauteng

We would like to thank all the companies who supported MAB during Mandela Day.

Staff from Tracker did some fab painting and upgraded the Child Friendly Facility at the GT Prov FCS Unit.

 Wilkins Attorneys and Heia Safari Ranch both arranged for packing sessions.

Crimeline and Shout helps



CRIME LINE, SHOUT REACHES OUT TO ABUSED CHILDREN ON MANDELA DAY Crime Line and the SHOUT Foundation handed over 300 comfort packs to Matla a Bana as part of Mandela Day celebrations in Johannesburg today. The comfort packs were made possible with generous donations from the SHOUT Foundation and AMKA Products. “In the spirit of Mandela Day and considering Tata Nelson Mandela’s love for children, we thought it fitting to support Matla a Bana. Together with the police they do amazing work to give comfort and support to children who have been abused,” said Crime Line coordinator, Marisa Oosthuizen. Matla a Bana is a non-profit organisation that seeks to minimise the secondary abuse children suffer when they report crimes against them. They run a number of projects to achieve this goal, including the creation of child-friendly reporting facilities at police stations, training in working with children, incentive awards and comfort packs. Today’s comfort packs targets the 3 – 5-year-old age groups and include a soft toy, soap and a washcloth, toothpaste and toothbrush, tissues, body lotion, colouring book and crayons, a Jungle Oats bar, Tennis biscuits, juice and a pair of underwear. “This year the organisation will be assisting 20 000 children who have been abused. We are humbled and honoured to make a small contribution towards achieving this target. We had about 60 volunteers who came through to do their 67 minutes for Mandela Day,” Oosthuizen added. SHOUT ambassadors Danny K and Kabelo Mabalane attended today’s proceedings and together with wives Lisa and Gail helped to put together the comfort packs. “It is a privilege to be part of doing good for our country. We have an important role to play in giving our children a voice. I think what we did today was a cool way to celebrate Tata Madiba’s birthday,” said Kabelo. “It is thanks to the donations from people like you that SHOUT is able to donate funds towards organisations such as Matla Bana and do something good. Madiba has made the ultimate sacrifice for us to aspire to and today is all about coming together and putting our hearts into a cause we love,” Danny K added. The comfort packs were handed over to the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) of the SAPS. “Next year we celebrate 20 years of democracy and as Lead SA has urged, let’s not stop at just doing our 67 minutes, but 20 hours of volunteerism in celebration of this historic milestone in South Africa,” Oosthuizen urged.

Old Mutual Comfort Packs

Volunteers decorating packs

 

 SAPS exhibition

 

 Sharing the news on the project

 

MAB joined more than a 1000 Old Mutual volunteers in Gauteng and Cape Town for the packing of comfort packs for child rape victims. It was a busy day with many happy people knowing that they are making a difference. We would like to thank Old Mutual Foundation for the continuous support!

Give a heart

During Child Protection Weekend  of 31 May, many well-known artists joined MAB for the Give a Heart campaign at Clearwater Mall. Several of our country's beautiful teen beauty queens also joined to raise funds for MAB. Thank you all, especially Clearwater Mall for this opportunity!

Absa Volunteers join for paint session

Absa Insurance and Financial Advisers staff got into their overalls to help MAB complete the paint work at Wynberg SAPS FCS. This time there was no fancy artwork, but just hard labor as they had to paint a huge, very long hallway. Thnx girls and guys for the donation of paints and of your talents. In typical volunteer style, they ended the session with a picnic in Mynardville!

Lead SA and Dischem comfort packs

On 13 June volunteers of Lead SA together with staff from Dischem Foundation joined forces to pack 100 comfort packs for child rape victims. Presenter, Africa Melane, was in charge of this effort and even Tim joined us for the packing and then did a long interview with Monique. Thank you to all for this wonderful effort.

Move for Kids

Thank you to all the volunteers who joined us on 31 May to Move for Kids. We were all challenged with serious fitness moves, but happy to say that all of us survived and thank you to Forever Strong for raising just over R 2000 for MAB.

Children supporting the Green Ribbon campaign

Epoch Awards

We are very proud of MAB CEO, Monique Strydom, who was nominated for the Epoch Awards. These awards are hosted annually to tell the stories of unsung heroes.  This year they will be giving away $50 000 to mission heroes.

We are very excited about this nomination, not because Monique is more deserving than any of the other nominees, but because this will hopefully give her an international platform to raise the plight of abused children in South Africa.

Read more on these awards on http://epochawards.com/

WC CHILD PROTECTION WEEK PROJECTS

MAB WC started Child Protection Week with a high receiving a donation of 34 dolls to be used by forensic social workers based at the Child Protection Units. These dolls will be used in the assessment of children who were raped. We would like to thank Thorburn Securities for this generous donation.

Staff from Absa Trust packed and donated 40 comfort packs to the Bellville FCS unit. These packs will be given to children who have been raped and reported the crimes against them.

Staff and management at Absa Insurers and Financial Advisers also collected goods and packed more than a 100 comfort packs. These were donated to various FCS units in the Western Cape.

CEO, Monique Strydom, visited Bellville South Primary School. She was joined by popular Afrikaan singer, Nedine Blom and staff from the Parow Sexual Offences Court. The kids were inspired to be a Hero and report crimes against them. Jataime Bees also won a brand new bicycle in the Hero Campaign.

MAB WC ended Child Protection Week by partnering with NGO's, Friends of Child Protection and Connect Network. A special Service of Hope and Blessing was hosted at Gardens Presbyterian Church. MAB presented a special Voices program with a group of kids. Everyone who attended tied green ribbons on the fences of the church to make people aware of the plight of abused children.