HOUSE GROUP

When Jean and Adéle du Plessis founded The House Group in January 1990 in the inner city of Johannesburg, they were working in a legal vacuum. There was no legislation specifically enabling organisations to help destitute girl children on South Africa's streets. The city's inner-city streets in the late 1980s and early 1990s were places of extraordinary hardship — girls as young as nine or ten living rough, exposed to prostitution, substances, violence, and the full weight of urban poverty. The House Group began providing shelter and support in this context, without a legal framework, without adequate funding, and without government recognition of what it was doing.

Within seven years, that had changed. In 1997, following sustained public advocacy by The House Group — advocacy that reached national and international media and forums — the South African Government passed legislation making it legal to help destitute girl children. The House Group had not just filled a gap; it had created the legal architecture others could now operate within, and shaped both local and national government policy manuals and Standard Operating Procedures for child care.

This is the institutional legacy that grounds everything The House Group does today.

Who The House Group Serves

The House Group's residential shelter in Hillbrow accepts girls under 19 years of age who are: abused; abandoned; destitute; exposed to or using addictive substances; or runaways. These profiles are often overlapping — a girl who has run away from an abusive home may be using substances to cope; a girl who has been abandoned may have become involved in prostitution to survive. The House Group does not require a girl to fit a single category. It responds to her whole situation.

The Programme Model

Stabilisation The immediate priority when a girl arrives is stabilisation — providing safety, food, warmth, and the beginning of human connection. This first phase recognises that a girl who has been living in crisis cannot begin any kind of development work until her fundamental needs are met and she feels safe.

Therapeutic Services A social worker renders therapeutic services to the girls in care — including individual and group counselling, trauma processing, and psychosocial assessment. The House Group describes its approach as multidisciplinary: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs are each attended to by a panel of professionals.

School Enrolment and Education Every girl is enrolled in school according to her educational needs. The House Group recognises that education is both a right and a long-term protective factor — without it, girls who leave the shelter face the same vulnerabilities they entered with.

Social Reintegration The explicit goal of the programme is to empower girls to reintegrate socially — to make better decisions, create a fulfilling life, and contribute positively to their communities. The House Group has developed a sustainable model of stabilising, rehabilitating, and reintegrating the vulnerable child into a loving home environment.

Medical and Nutritional Care Physical health and nutrition are addressed as baseline services — a girl who is hungry or sick cannot engage in therapeutic work or school.

Relevance to GBV Survivors

The House Group is directly relevant to this directory for GBV survivors with daughters. Women who have fled abusive situations may have daughters who have themselves experienced abuse, been running away, or become involved in substance use or other high-risk behaviours. The House Group provides a registered, professional residential care environment specifically for girls, in Hillbrow — close to the inner-city Johannesburg communities from which many GBV survivors come.

The House Group: Hillbrow, Johannesburg (shelter address not published for safety). Admin/donations: Unit A, 363 Surrey Avenue, Ferndale, Randburg, 2194. Phone: +27 11 789 4966. Email: riana@thehousegroup.co.za. NPO 037-622. Facebook: @shelter4girls. Founded January 1990.