Pathways to Change Johannesburg

Pathways to Change operates at the intersection of two of South Africa's most urgent structural health and human rights challenges: the denial of sexual and reproductive health rights to women and girls, and the epidemic of gender-based violence that makes so many women's and girls' bodies unsafe. Its programmes recognise that these two crises are not separate — that a young woman without access to contraception and SRHR information is more vulnerable to exploitation and violence; that a survivor of gender-based violence whose health needs go unmet is more vulnerable to HIV; that rural isolation and poverty create the conditions of dependency in which abuse is most easily hidden and hardest to escape.

The organisation is based in Kimberley, the Northern Cape — one of the provinces most underserved by GBV and SRHR infrastructure — with a Johannesburg office extending its reach. Its programme implementation under NACOSA and the Global Fund positions it within a national response architecture, delivering structured, evidence-based interventions that meet donor accountability standards.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)

Pathways to Change delivers youth-friendly SRHR services for women, girls, and all adolescents — providing contraception access, HIV prevention, PrEP and PEP awareness, and rights-based counselling and information that addresses the full spectrum of reproductive decision-making. Critically, the organisation also delivers SRHR education to boys and young men — recognising that sustainable change in sexual health and gender equality requires engaging those with the most social power to perpetuate or prevent harm.

Preventing and Responding to Violence Against Women and Girls

This service stream is the most directly relevant to GBV survivors. Pathways to Change provides: trauma-informed psychosocial support for women and girls who have experienced violence; survivor navigation and follow-up support — accompanying survivors through the often complex and daunting systems they must navigate for justice and healing; strengthened referral pathways ensuring that survivors can access the services they need; and community dialogues that challenge the harmful gender norms that make violence seem inevitable or acceptable. Men and boys are deliberately engaged as allies in this work — not as antagonists but as essential participants in building the communities where women can be safe.

Community and Health System Strengthening

Pathways to Change works not only with individual survivors but with the systems that are supposed to protect them. Provider training for health workers improves the quality and consistency of GBV and SRHR responses at the facility level. Gender-transformative education equips community leaders, youth facilitators, teachers, healthcare providers, and caregivers with the tools to create protective environments. The organisation integrates PHE (Population, Health and Environment) principles — recognising that environmental pressures, resource scarcity, and livelihood insecurity disproportionately affect rural women and girls and shape their SRHR needs and GBV vulnerability in ways that purely health-focused programmes miss.

Education System Strengthening

Through safe campus initiatives and school-based violence prevention and rights awareness programmes, Pathways to Change reaches young people at the stage where social norms about gender, consent, and relationships are being most actively formed. Programmes address both boys and girls, and integrate awareness of economic and ecological pressures shaping young people's health and safety decisions.

Advocacy, Research and Policy

Pathways to Change generates evidence and conducts assessments — including research into how environmental factors intersect with SRHR, GBV, and community resilience. This evidence base is used to inform policy dialogue and strengthen the case for rights-based approaches to gender and health. The organisation's Resource Centre hosts key national policy documents including the GBVF National Strategic Plan, the National Child Care and Protection Policy, the SANAC NSP 2023–2028, and the 2018 GBV Summit Report — making these critical reference documents accessible in one place.

Practical Support

Alongside its structural and advocacy work, Pathways to Change provides direct survivor accompaniment and linkage to shelters and psychosocial services — ensuring that survivors are not left to navigate complex systems alone.

Who They Serve

Priority populations include: women and girls; adolescent girls and young women (AGYW — supported under the NACOSA/Global Fund framework); women in rural areas facing service isolation; women with disabilities; LBTQI+ women; older women; survivors of intimate partner violence; survivors of sexual violence; adolescent boys; young men; male peer networks; and teachers, healthcare providers, and caregivers.

Relevance to GBV Survivors

For GBV survivors in the Northern Cape and beyond, Pathways to Change is among the few organisations providing integrated, survivor-centred GBV response and SRHR services in a region with historically limited NGO infrastructure. Its direct survivor accompaniment, referral linkages, and trauma-informed psychosocial support make it a meaningful access point — and its work engaging boys, men, teachers, and health providers addresses the structural conditions that determine whether survivors encounter enabling or re-traumatising environments when they seek help.

Pathways to Change: 1 Loch Road, Belgravia, Kimberley, NC, 8301 | Postnet Suite 177, Benmore, JHB. Phone: +27 82 303 4040. Email: mercedes@pathwaystochange.org.za. Website: pathwaystochange.org.za. Mon–Fri 08:00–15:00.