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.

A day of great exposure

The media has been very kind to Matla A Bana. CEO Monique Strydom started the day with an early morning interview with Expresso Show on SABC. Then a great interview with KFM and ended the day off with an hour long interview on child abuse at Radio Tygerberg. Thanx to all our media partners for helping us spread the word!

Wynberg project in the paper!

Thnx People's Post for this great article!

SAPS Soft Skills Training

Gauteng MAB trained 25 SAPS FCS detective in soft skills needed to work with traumatized victims. This is part of a five module training course. Leonore Louw (Reach Africa, bottom left), is sponsoring this training course to the value of more than R 100 000. 

We would like to thank the following sponsors:
Reach Africa
Mosaiek
Roodepoort Town Lodge
Roman's 

Child Protection Month 2013

Comfort pack donation

We would like to thank the Art of Living Foundation for donating 600 comfort packs for medium and small girls on 13 May. These packs will be given to the SAPS FCS units to give to little girls when they report the crimes! This donation will go a far way to change a life! Thank you Deeps Patel for driving this great project.

Wynberg Child Friendly room opened

Due to hard work and dedication from a group of radiography students from the CPTU, the reporting room and waiting area at Wynberg FCS has been upgraded to be child friendly. Rotary Claremont also donated R15000 towards upgrading this facility to a full reporting facility.

Thank you Megan and the girls for a job well done!!!

Interact Fairmont shines

We would like to thank the Rotary Interact Group at Fairmont High School for their continued support. They donated bags full of goodies needed for the comfort pack project!

Serial Rape Investigation Course Gauteng

In April Matla A Bana hosted 3 days of Investigation of Serial Rape (with the help of Brig Labuschange) for 25 FCS Detectives stationed the GT Provincial Office - this task team will be responsible for the investigation of serial rape cases. 
Thank you to Rosebank Union Church for sponsoring the venue and catering.

THE DEDICATION OF FCS DETECTIVES

Johannesburg - For months they would lie in wait at dumping areas around Joburg, dressed in worn-out and dirty overalls pretending to be peasants. 

In the early hours of the morning, late at night, in the freezing cold or in pouring rain, Warrant Officer Morake Khoali, Captain Maria Mokhele, constables Leutsoa Mofokeng and Jerry Khambule, from the Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit in Vereeniging, would be there.

They would roam around, pretending to be looking for items around the rubbish dumps, while they were in fact hoping to catch two men travelling in a minibus taxi and raping women at dumping sites around the Vaal area.

The men’s first rapes of the day were between 3am and 6am.

Any woman who was by herself on the road and who flagged down their taxi between those times was their target.

Their second rapes of the day took place in the evening; the last woman in the taxi was their victim. They would park their taxi and take turns raping the woman and leave her there naked, or throw her out while the taxi was moving.

Their reign of terror continued for eight months, from January 2008.

The officers were frustrated when their stakeouts at the places where the rapes were committed never bore any fruit and, in the meantime, the rapes were getting out of control.

They were unable to focus on anything else. They never rested. They neglected their families. They slept at their offices and out at dumping sites. Their informants didn’t have any information. None of the victims had managed to take the registration number of the minibus taxi; all they had was a description.

Another problem was that women were being raped in Orange Farm, Lenasia, Ennerdale, De Deur and Evaton, and it was therefore not known where exactly the rapists were operating from.

As the rapes mounted, the officers approached the taxi industry for help.

“We got a lot of problems there, some taxi bosses did not want to help,” Khoali recalled.

One taxi operator stepped forward, though. He told the police that he knew the taxi they wanted and what its normal route was.

Just as the police were getting excited about the lead, they arrived at the office to hear that the men had just raped their 52nd victim.

With the information from the taxi informant, the last victim and her father, who is also in the taxi industry, the police were able to make an arrest the next day.

By the time the matter went to court, 27 of the women were willing to proceed with the case and the others had withdrawn the charges, saying they did not want their families to know about the rapes.

The trial lasted three years and the State had more than 200 witnesses.

On March 13, 2012, Boitumelo Galubetse was sentenced to 780 years and 51 life sentences, while his friend Bongani Madlala got 49 life sentences and 780 years.

The victims, their parents and the community were so touched by the dedication of the officers to the case that they threw a party on Saturday to thank them.

Malekhotla Mofokeng, a mother of one of the victims, had tears in her eyes as she described the journey from when her daughter was raped until the matter was finally completed.

“It was a difficult and painful journey we were on and we thought it important, as parents and victims, to show gratitude,” she said.

Khoali said this was one of the most difficult cases he had ever worked on. “There were times when I did not go inside the court because it was too painful. The victims would be crying while testifying and the accused would be sitting there, laughing at them.

“On the other hand, the lawyers would be attacking them… it was too painful to watch. I thank God that we got them before they killed anyone,” he said.

The Star

Old Mutual Run for more than yourself

Old Mutual nominated MAB as one of the beneficiaries of this campaign. Ryan O'Connor also ran for MAB! Nearly R28 000 was raised with this project! 

New partnership with UJ

MAB did a presentation to the Students at the Department of Strategic Communication at UJ. This group is going to help MAB with a communications plan! We are very excited about this partnership. Not only do we hope to win the young people over to our cause, but we know that their creative talents will help us get our important messages across.

Absa supports Xtreme rider

Absa, proud title sponsor of the Absa Cape Epic, is honoured to donate the sum of R 50 000.00 to Matla A Bana on behalf of Bert van der Walt. Bert is a valued employee of Absa who cycled from Johannesburg to Cape Town for this cause, and shortly thereafter participated in and successfully completed the world’s toughest mountain bike race, the Absa Cape Epic, in a continued effort to raise awareness for the fight against child abuse. Well done, Bert, we are proud of you and your tenacious display of the Human Spirit!

New Facebook site

Please show your support by liking our new Facebook site.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Matla-A-Bana/226641587461162

Gauteng gets another room

With the financial help from Old Mutual Foundation, MAB could implement a child-friendly room at the Benoni Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences SAPS unit. This was long due and we would like to thank Old Mutual for the continued assistance.

Bellville Court therapy room done!

MAB this week completed the work at Bellville court and the therapy room. The initial work was started by Absa volunteers and yesterday MAB staff added the final touches. This is part of the MAB trauma project, sponsored by Grand West Casino, Dischem Foundation and Interkaap.

From afar we get help

It is so great to get a phone call and be informed that someone from very far has heard about a project and would like to help. Karen, who is here all the way from Australia to work as a volunteer at an orphanage, met with Monique and donated two bags stuffed with goodies for the comfort packs. We would like to thank both Karen and Megan who set up the meeting!!! Hope Karen will spread the message when she is back in Australia!

XTREME TEAM

CALLIE, IVAN ZIMMERMAN AND BERT

MAB was there in full support when Bert and Beyers completed the Cape Epic. Despite his serious fall and bad injury on the first day, Bert continued and managed to raise an additional R 55 000 for the MAB. There is much talk about doing the Xtreme Tour and the Cape Argus for MAB again next year. We have managed to find the first three entries already!

KEEP ON SHOPPING!

Your shopping will not only benefit you, but will also help us! We would like to thank all the staff at Groupon for donating funds towards our project. A cheque of R 3000 was handed over to Monique. And that is not all - boxes full of goodie donations we will share with our partner charities!

So if you want to help - keep on shopping!

(And thanx to MAB supporter, Kirsten, for telling everyone about us!)

Budding artists help us!

A group of senior managers from Absa had no idea that they were so talented when it comes to art, until they undertook to paint two rooms for MAB. What makes it even more special is that most of these volunteers are men! Last Friday, two groups of AIFA division at ABSA took some time off to paint murals on the walls of the trauma room at Bellville court and the assessment room and reception area at the Paarl SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual offences unit.  Some of them painted each other and some even painted some other areas (like the entrance to the court - a tin of paint fell!!!). But even with all the challenges the artwork came out beautifully and they have made a huge contribution in helping us minimizing the secondary abuse the child suffers when reporting the crime.

Thank you to Anton and your team!

LIONS HERO OF THE YEAR AWARD

We are happy to announce that the work done by Matla A Bana is not going unnoticed! On Saturday, COO Monique Strydom, won the Lions International District 410A (Western & Northern Cape and Namibia) the Hero of the Year Award. She was chosen from 10 nominees and was recognized  for founding Matla A Bana and her continued dedication to this charity.

In her speech Monique stated that not only the nominees, but also each and every Lions volunteer are heroes because they have chosen to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. Monique also thanked all the MAB volunteers, the officers of the law, the doctors, Lizel Van Eeden (project manager Gauteng), her family and God (for giving her a second chance)

Xtremeforkids and the Argus

The Xtremeforkids cyclists arrived in Durbanville after an easy ride from Wolseley. This group faced many challenges, met many great people, reached more than 8000 children and cycled more than 1800 kms for Matla A Bana. They were supported by SAPS all the way down - either with escorts, joining them at schools and evening cycling with them. They were welcomed in Cape Town by General Jephta who received a letter of commitment on behalf of the WC Provincial Commissioner.
A day later they joined the MAB Argus team and 16 cyclists cycled on behalf of MAB. We would like to congratulated Andre and Casper for making the top 10 in the tandem division and Andries who coming second in the hand cycle division. We would also like to thank all our cyclists and sponsor for your dedication. A special word of thank you to Karli who was the project manager on the ground with the team.

See all the photos and read more on the tour on http://www.facebook.com/XtremeforkidsCycleTour

XTREME KIDS INTERVIEWS

We would like to thank Radio Tygerberg for covering the Xtremeforkids Cycle tour so extensively. They did  live cross overs during the last three days and also interviewed Monique at the welcoming point!

MONIQUE INTERVIEWED

Monique Strydom was interviewed by CII Radio station (with an international broadcast) on her ordeal as a hostage and how she used that experience to set up Matla A Bana. She also shared tips with parents on child abuse and the signs and symptoms of abuse.

Wes Beeld Story

Skole

Tuisblad / Nuus / Wes-Randse polisie oes pryse in

WES-RANDSE POLISIE OES PRYSE IN

Amanda Roestoff

Foto: BONGIWE GUMEDE

2013-03-07 00:00

Lizel van Eeden, bemarkingsbeampte van Matla A Bana saam met ao. Peet du Toit van die eenheid vir gesinsgeweld, kinderbeskerming en seksuele misdrywe in Krugersdorp wat onlangs weer vir sy ondersoekwerk in die Sondagverkragtersaak vereer is.

Die kinderregte organisasie Matla A Bana het vandeesmaand 16 polisielede van eenhede vir gesinsgeweld, kinderbeskerming en seksuele misdrywe (GKS) in Gauteng erkenning gegee vir uitsonderlike dienslewering in die gemeenskap.
Die Wes-Randse speurder ao. Peet du Toit van Krugersdorp se GKS-eenheid en ’n soortgelyke eenheid van die Carletonville-polisiekantoor is saam met ’n senior polisieoffisier as uitblinkers aangewys.
Die vakbond Solidariteit het Du Toit ’n jaar gelede vereer met ’n Sterre in die Gemeenskap-eerbewys vir uitmuntendheid in polisiewerk.
Toe het sy dryfkrag om met die veeleisende werk vol te hou ’n deurslaggewende rol gespeel in die aankeer van Jaco Steyn, beter bekend as die Sondagverkragter.
Vandeesmaand het Matla A Bana sy hoogste toekenning aan Du Toit toegeken vir dieselfde saak. Hiervoor moes hy 87 getuies in sake sedert 2008 moes opspoor om die suksesvolle vervolging van Steyn te verseker.
Hy is saam met die staatsaanklaer Carina Coetzee vereer, ná albei se toewyding bygedra het daartoe dat Steyn tot lewenslange tronkstraf gevonnis is.
“Dit is altyd ’n eer om só toekenning te ontvang. Die ware helde in die saak is egter al die kindertjies. Om al daai emosies weer in ’n hofsaak te herleef. ” sê Du Toit. “Daar het baie tyd en werk in die saak ingegaan. Ek is net verlig dit is nou verby,” voeg hy by.
Die GKS-eenheid in Carletonville aan die verre Wes-Rand is as die beste eenheid in Gauteng provinsie aangewys.
Nog ’n hoogtepunt was ’n toekenning aan kol. Paul van Eeden, ’n polisieoffisier verbonde aan die polisie se hoofkantoor in Parktown, Johannesburg, wat meer as 2000 kilometer binne 24 uur gereis het om R100 000 vir mishandelde kinders in te samel.

702 and Jenny

Thank you Jenny for interviewing Monique on your afternoon show. We appreciate your interest and willingness to talk about such a difficult subject.

On Radio Pulpit

Thank you Bonolo Nkosi for having Monique Strydom on your program on Monday. She had a great time and looking forward to working together in the future!