Hope for the Heart Pregnancy Care Centre

t is a pregnancy care centre, not an organisation with an agenda about which choices people should make. Its counselling is non-directive — it provides accurate information about all options available and supports the person in front of it to make the decision that is right for them. It does not tell people what to do. It creates a safe space in which they can figure that out.

Accessibility and Reach

Hope for the Heart's services are free and mobile — it comes to people rather than requiring people to come to it. In addition to its main presence in Wentworth, it maintains a dedicated weekly service space at GJ Crookes Hospital, extending its reach to one of the south Durban area's key public health facilities. WhatsApp counselling is available as a confidential, no-cost digital access point — important for people who may not be able to speak freely at home or who lack transport to reach a centre.

Programmes

Pregnancy Options Counselling is the centre's core service: providing complete, non-directive information about all options available to someone facing an unplanned pregnancy — parenting, adoption, foster care, and termination — and supporting the person through the entire journey, not just the moment of decision.

Single Parent Support and Assistance recognises that for many people, the decision to parent alone is not the end of the crisis but the beginning of a different one. The programme provides material donations, support groups, and individual counselling to single parents navigating financial pressure, social isolation, and the absence of co-parenting support.

Mother Wellness Community Support Group creates a peer community for mothers — a safe space to connect, share resources, and break the isolation that parenthood can impose.

Legacy Dad Programme deliberately brings fathers into the conversation. Equipping fathers of pre-schoolers with talking, playing, thinking, and listening techniques to help their children thrive, it addresses root causes of GBV by building the conditions for engaged, equitable co-parenting.

Post Abortion/Miscarriage Recovery provides compassionate, non-judgemental support for women and men who have experienced pregnancy loss through abortion or miscarriage — recognising that this grief is rarely adequately addressed in the healthcare system.

Sexual Health Programme equips youth with the knowledge and language needed to make informed decisions about their bodies, relationships, and health.

Projects

The Buy One Give One Baby Wrap Project provides every new mother with a baby wrap while giving one to an under-resourced family. The Jar of Hope Project builds organisational sustainability. The monthly Pop-Up Thrift Shop (first Saturday of the month, Blue Roof Life Space, 178 Austerville Drive, Wentworth) raises funds and creates a visible community presence.

Relevance to GBV Survivors

For a survivor of sexual assault in south Durban who faces the possibility of an unintended pregnancy, Hope for the Heart's non-directive, no-cost pregnancy options counselling is a relevant and accessible resource. The Post Abortion/Miscarriage Recovery programme may also be relevant to survivors who are carrying unresolved grief from a previous pregnancy following assault. The centre's WhatsApp counselling provides a discreet initial access point for people not yet ready to attend in person.

Hope for the Heart Pregnancy Care Centre: Wentworth, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal + GJ Crookes Hospital (weekly). Phone/WhatsApp: 064 890 9324. Email: admin@hopefortheheart.org.za. Website: hopefortheheart.org.za. Facebook: @HopefortheHeartPCC. Instagram: @hopefortheheartpcc. Founded 2017.