Children A'Loud

At-risk youth development organisation; mentorship; trauma counselling for children affected by gang violence, murder, and sexual violence; career guidance; holiday programme; ECD; life-skills camps; sport (baseball, karate); GBV-adjacent counselling for children and families affected by violent crime Works with children and youth at risk in the Ocean View community — one of Cape Town's most severely gang-affected and socially deprived townships on the southern peninsula. Ocean View's children grow up amid chronic gang violence, shootings, murders, substance abuse, and the sexual violence that pervades contexts of concentrated poverty and gang culture. Children A'loud works within this reality, not around it. Its services are structured around what children in Ocean View actually need: individual and family **counselling** for children affected by gang violence, murder, rape, and trauma (including children who have personally witnessed murders and found the body of a murdered family member); **career guidance** with job-shadowing and matric support; a **holiday programme** (300+ children) that keeps children safe, supervised, and actively developing life skills during school holidays; an **Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme** with occupational therapy assessment and school-readiness support for up to 90 Grade R and pre-Grade R children at the Ocean View Care Centre; two annual **life-skills camps** across the Western Cape; weekly **karate** classes (45 registered children, blue-belt level achieved); a competitive **baseball** programme (75 registered players, four teams in the CTBF league, with players regularly making Western Province teams); and a **YouthMatters** school mental health programme at Ocean View and Zeekoevlei Secondary Schools. Children A'loud is not a crisis intervention service or GBV shelter — but for children in Ocean View who have been traumatised by violence, sexual abuse, and murder, it is often the only sustained, trusting adult presence in their lives outside of school. Social workers and welfare organisations serving Ocean View can refer children for ongoing mentorship and trauma support. Facebook: childrenaloud / Instagram: @children_aloud.

Children & Youth Counselling & Therapy GBV Support

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About

Counselling

Trauma counselling is available to all children in the mentorship programme. Children A'loud provides individual and family counselling for children experiencing behavioural changes, children affected by family loss or violence, and children traumatised by direct or witnessed crime. Given the acute shortage of formal counselling space in Ocean View, the organisation's leadership describes having to conduct counselling in their vehicle — a detail that speaks both to the urgency and to the resource constraints under which the work happens.

The counselling offering is not limited to formal sessions: it is woven into the relationship of consistent presence and trust that the programme builds with children over years. For many children, the adults at Children A'loud are among the most stable and trustworthy they encounter.

Career Guidance and Matric Support

Career guidance consultants help children navigate educational and career decisions — including job shadowing placements for those who have identified career interests, and employment support for those who do not qualify for tertiary study. Practical support extends to matric dance expenses, ID documentation, banking accounts, and learner's licence fees — the small financial barriers that often prevent young people in poverty from completing milestones.

Holiday Programme

Over 300 children attend the Children A'loud holiday club during June and December school holidays. Matric graduates from the programme work as paid play leaders — earning a stipend while mentoring younger children. The structured activities are specifically designed to build life skills: teamwork, leadership, confidence, sharing, and sportsmanship. The programme's explicit goal is to keep children safe, supervised, and purposefully occupied during the periods when they are most vulnerable to gang recruitment.

Early Childhood Development

The ECD programme at the Ocean View Care Centre works with up to 90 Grade R and pre-Grade R children through occupational therapy assessment and targeted school-readiness intervention. Children who begin school unable to access learning are at elevated long-term risk — the ECD programme addresses this at the point where intervention is most effective.

Life-Skills Camps

Two residential life-skills camps per year, held at venues across the Western Cape, take children away from their domestic circumstances and the pressures of their environment. Testimonials from children describe the camps as transformative: time to simply be a child, away from the violence, with access to activities and experiences that would otherwise be impossible.

Sport — Karate and Baseball

Karate (45 registered children, twice weekly throughout the year, led by Sensei Andre De Vries) and baseball (75 registered players, four CTBF league teams, with regular Western Province representatives) are not peripheral activities. They are the backbone of Children A'loud's engagement strategy — providing structure, discipline, team identity, physical health, and the sustained relationship with a mentor adult that research consistently identifies as the primary protective factor for at-risk youth. Six girls and two boys from the baseball programme have made Western Province teams and earned their colours.

YouthMatters School Mental Health

In partnership with the YouthMatters school mental health programme (also implemented by Cape Mental Health at Ocean View and Zeekoevlei Secondary Schools), Children A'loud contributes to a structured school-based approach to mental health resilience — addressing the specific social realities of Ocean View learners: poverty, child abuse, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, and gang violence.

Relevance to GBV Survivors and Practitioners

Children A'loud is not a GBV crisis service. For acute crisis, survivors and their children should contact the GBV Command Centre (0800 428 428) or Childline (116). But for social workers, child protection practitioners, teachers, and welfare organisations working with children in Ocean View and Zeekoevlei who need a sustained, trauma-informed, community-embedded support programme for children affected by GBV, gang violence, murder, and sexual abuse — Children A'loud is one of the most significant available resources. Referrals for mentorship, counselling, career guidance, and ECD support: 084 607 9998 / info@childrenaloud.co.za.

Children A'loud: 10 Boat Road, Zeekoevlei, Cape Town, 7941. Phone: 084 607 9998 / 021 706 2602. Email: info@childrenaloud.co.za. Website: childrenaloud.co.za. Facebook: childrenaloud. Instagram: @children_aloud. Serving Ocean View community — counselling, career guidance, ECD, sport, holiday programme, life-skills camps.