Mandela Day - After thought

Three days after celebrating Mandela Day, we are still suffering from blisters, stiff legs and sore backs - but all with big smiles! MAB was extremely blessed this year with great support from some of the biggest companies in South Africa.

Thank you to Media 24, Old Mutual, RamsayMedia for believing in us and what we do. Thank you for the thousands of comfort packs, snack packs and the unexpected container that was donated. Thank you to each and every staff member who packed and every member of the public who donated goods towards these drives. Thank you also to Spar for supporting.

Please know that these efforts will change the lives of thousands of abused children!

Mandela Day - Media 24

Staff at Media 24 offices nationwide and On the Dot packed 6000 snack packs for child abuse victims on Mandela Day. These packs were received by Matla A Bana, who handed it over to the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units. 

One great surprise of the day was the donation of a container to be used as an medical examination room for rape victims at West Fleur Hospital in Atlantis. 

MANDELA DAY - Old Mutual

OLD MUTUAL EMPLOYEES GIVE 67 MINUTES FOR MADIBA IN 2012!

Wednesday 18th July 2012. Presentation Room, Old Mutual Business School, Mutual Park, Pinelands, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. OLD MUTUAL EMPLOYEES GIVE 67 MINUTES FOR MADIBA IN 2012! Old Mutual Employees give 67 minutes of their time in honour of Nelson Mandela who celebrated his 94th birthday today, Wednesday 18th July 2012 at Mutual Park in Pinelands near Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. Employees spent time making, decorating, painting and packing special comfort packs for girls between the ages of 4 - 8 and 9 - 12 who have been abused. These comfort packs are given to Non Government Organization (NGO) Matla A Bana - A Voice Against Abuse. Matla A Bana is the only legally affiliated NGO to the South African Police Service who has a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU). Old Mutual Employees also spent time making emergency, waterproof sleeping bags for homeless and destitute people. The bags are made from newspaper and plastic. The day's events were hosted by The Old Mutual Foundation. Special Guests attending were Monique Strydom from Matla A Bana and Brigadier Joseph Makhura from the SAPS along with Helene Africa from Old Mutual.
PICTURE: MARK WESSELS. 18/07/2012. +27 (0)21 551 5527. +27 (0)78 222 8777.

Mandela Day - RamsayMedia

RamsayMedia’s ’67 minutes’ to benefit boy rape survivors

It’s hard to comprehend that an increasing number of rape survivors are boys under the age of 10. Yet the ordeal these youngsters have been through was top of mind for RamsayMedia staff when they put together comfort bags for Matla a Bana: A Voice against Child Abuse, for Mandela Day.

The NGO asked the media house to focus on this group when they bag facecloths, toothpaste and brushes, pencils and notebooks, juice, biscuits, underwear, balls – and teddy bears; some of the items intended to provide comfort to the young recipients as they go through the bewildering process of reporting the rape.

“The requests that we are getting from the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units show that the rape of young boys is becoming more of a problem every year,” commented Monique Strydom, national manager of Matla a Bana. “In one area the number is as high as 40%. What is even more shocking is that the average age of the perpetrator is coming down – at one of the units it is 12 years old, which is frightening!”

It is the third year RamsayMedia has adopted Matla a Bana for its Mandela Day initiative. Teams at the Cape Town and Sandton offices spent their ’67 minutes for Mandela Day’ assembling 275 packs for boys aged 4 – 8 and 9 – 12, which were handed over to Matla a Bana and SAPS representatives on Friday, 13 July.

The packs are a real comfort to the children and make it easier for them to open up to police about what they had gone through, said Strydom.

The staff raised almost R4 000 – an amount matched by the company – to buy the items for the comfort packs. The underwear was once again donated by Easywear, which has supported the initiative for the past three years.

TMO Reporter
Media Mecca

THANK YOU!

A very bit thank you to all the individuals and companies who so generously collected and donated items for our comfort pack project. We would not have made the target without you! A very special thank you to Marlene Mostert, who mobilised the whole Western Cape!

Matla a Bana would like to thank Massmart Holdings for the Donation of three fridges and playroom equipment to the value of R17 984.58. This donation will be used to equip the SAPS Provincial Office of the FCS unit in Gauteng and to create child-friendly reporting rooms at the Sunnyside FCS in Pretoria and the Krugersdorp FCS unit on the West Rand.

Watch this space for more news...! 

Workshop - Why men rape babies

On 21 June,  MAB  hosted a workshop with the FCS detectives in Gauteng on why men rape babies. Thirty FCS delegates attended and the feedback was very positive!!

Matla aBana would like to thank Dr Amelia Kleijn a Registered Social Worker for sharing her Research with our Organisation!  Dr Amelia’s research was conducted with “baby rapists” or incarcerated men serving long sentences for the rape of children under the age of three years. The focus of the study were the men’s psychosocial histories and the possible factors in their lives that enabled them to act so violently and brutally towards particularly young children. To the best of her knowledge, her study is the first of its kind.

We would like to thank Eversheds International for your generous sponsorship of an immaculate venue and scrumptious snacks!