KOPANO MANYANO

KMGC has spent more than two decades responding to homelessness, trauma, HIV/AIDS, substance dependence, hunger, and youth unemployment in Marabastad, Pretoria West, Mamelodi, and surrounding communities. Its 85+ volunteers deliver six interlocking programmes that recognise the overlapping nature of these crises — that a GBV survivor may also be food-insecure, that a homeless person may also be living with HIV, that a young person without skills is also a person without safety.

Victim Empowerment Programme

The Victim Empowerment Programme is KMGC's most directly relevant service for GBV survivors. Handling 80+ monthly cases with 24/7 crisis support, it provides:

• Immediate trauma counselling and debriefing: Crisis-responsive psychological support for people in acute distress following violence or crime
• Legal rights awareness workshops: Practical education on survivors' legal rights — what protections exist, what processes are available, what to expect from the system
• Police station support and advocacy: Accompanying and supporting victims through the reporting process, ensuring they understand their rights and are treated appropriately
• Safe temporary accommodation: Emergency refuge for people who cannot safely return home
• Long-term psychological support: Ongoing counselling through the longer arc of recovery

The 24/7 availability is significant — crises do not observe office hours, and KMGC's round-the-clock response capacity makes it a meaningful resource for survivors in acute need at any hour.

Homelessness Support Programme

More than 150 people monthly are sheltered through referral temporary accommodation, with a 65% family reunification rate that reflects the programme's commitment to addressing the relational roots of homelessness. Family mediation, life skills and vocational training, job placement, and six months of follow-up support ensure that stability is built, not just provided temporarily.

HIV/AIDS Home-Based Care

Fifteen trained caregivers serve 200+ patients through a programme combining community awareness campaigns, free HIV testing and counselling, home-based care for bedridden patients, medication adherence support, and stigma reduction. In a city where HIV intersects powerfully with poverty and GBV, this programme addresses dimensions of vulnerability that crisis services alone cannot reach.

Drug and Substance Rehabilitation

For 45 active clients, KMGC provides medically supervised detoxification, individual and group counselling, nutritional support, relapse prevention, and family education — reporting a 70% success rate that reflects the value of its comprehensive approach. Substance dependence is both a risk factor for GBV and a consequence of it; addressing it is part of the broader response.

Feeding Scheme and Food Security

More than 1,200 meals are provided weekly through a daily community feeding programme, alongside 250 monthly food parcels, community vegetable gardens, nutrition education, and emergency food relief. Food security is not peripheral to the GBV response — it is one of the forces that keeps survivors trapped and prevents them from leaving when they decide to.

Youth Development and Skills Training

With 180+ youth trained and a reported 60% employment rate, this programme delivers vocational skills, life skills and financial literacy, career guidance, internship and job placement assistance, and youth leadership development — building the capability and purpose that reduce young people's vulnerability to exploitative relationships.

Relevance to GBV Survivors

KMGC is a multi-service community organisation, not a dedicated GBV specialist. But its Victim Empowerment Programme — with 24/7 crisis support, trauma counselling, police station advocacy, legal rights education, and temporary accommodation — makes it a meaningful access point for GBV survivors in central Tshwane and the communities it serves. Its combination of crisis response, psychosocial support, food security, and skills development reflects an understanding of the multiple, overlapping vulnerabilities that GBV survivors often carry simultaneously.

*Kopano Manyano: 217 Pretorius Street, Barend Van Erkom Building, Pretoria, 0001. Phone: 012 304 0670. Cell: 082 228 1597. Email: kopanomanyano51@gmail.com. Website: kopanomanyano.com. NPO 2003/025940/21.