The Saartjie Baartman centre for woman and children are preparing to launch a new wing which will be equipped to house women with substance dependency issues who are seeking to escape abusive and violent relationships. According to director Shaheema McLeod, the project was initiated following extensive research.

“The current reality for the Saartjie Baartman centre is that the majority of our clients accessing services or accommodation are either using, abusing or are addicted to drugs. This hinders their recovery process and has prompted us to find a way to manage both the preventing problem being violence within the home and coupled with the abuse of substance,” she explained.

McLeod said the centre decided to develop a new wing which is a two week orientation programme followed by a therapeutic stay at the Saartjie Baartman centre.

“What we will be focusing on here is keeping the children safe in our care while the mom is on a soft detox programme so the never break contact with their moms.”

The Saartjie Baartman centre’s aim with using a soft detox is to target those who are using the cheaper drugs.

“The term that we use ‘soft detox’ means that we will be assisting clients that are using cheaper drugs which are easily available in the community like your tik and dagga. In fact our statistics show us that most of the woman coming into the centre are testing positive for drugs,” McLeod
stated.

A donation drive has been launched in order to kit out the new wing with furniture, bedding and clothing. The community and private sector are invited to support the Centre in raising these necessities.

McLeod voiced a call for help from the community with requesting support to get the programme going. “We have been struggling to get operational donor funding for the soft detox unit and we are urging the community and cooperates who wish to contribute to do so that we can get this programme of the ground.”

If you would like to contact the organisation to hand over any contributions you can call their offices on 021 633 52 87 or log on to their website for more details www.saartjiebaartmancentre.org.za

VOC (Najma Bibi Noor Mahomed)