St. Mary's Home of Hope

On 9 February 2012, the South African Department of Public Works handed over two houses — one in Parow, one in Paarl — to a small NPO that had been registered since 2009 and had spent three years negotiating with government departments to secure a physical home for its vision. St Mary's Home of Hope, founded by Maria Basson, finally had a place to put into practice what it had been planning: shelters for abused women and children in the Western Cape, grounded in a commitment to dignity, inclusivity, and the breaking of the cycle of abuse.

More than a decade later, both sites are operating, led by a six-member board with Basson as Managing Director and House Mother of both shelters.

Two Sites, Two Mandates

Parow — Abused Children's Home (Safe House) The Parow site is a children's safe house — a dedicated residential facility for children who have experienced abuse. The exact admission criteria (age range, referral pathways, placement duration) should be confirmed by contacting the organisation directly, as the website does not publish detailed programme information. Parow is in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, well-connected by road and rail.

Paarl — Women and Children's Shelter The Paarl site is a shelter for abused women with their children — specifically accepting women with children from birth to 8 years of age. This age specificity is important: many shelters cannot accommodate children above a certain age, and St Mary's explicit inclusion of young children means mothers do not have to choose between shelter and keeping their family together. Paarl is approximately 60km from Cape Town's city centre in the Cape Winelands, accessible via the N1.

Inclusive and Tolerant

St Mary's website explicitly states that the organisation is "inclusive and tolerant to diversity of all" — a meaningful declaration in a shelter context, where women of different races, religions, nationalities, and backgrounds seek refuge. This is reinforced by the IOM partnership (see below).

Partnership with IOM — Foreign National Survivors

One of the most distinctive aspects of St Mary's work is its partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to support and repatriate foreign national GBV survivors. The website describes two cases: two women from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) whose children were reunited with them and who were assisted to return to the DRC; and a Filipino woman who had come to Cape Town after meeting a Congolese man online, secured employment at the docks as a secretary for a Chinese company, and subsequently found herself in a situation where she needed shelter and repatriation assistance. South Africa's GBV sector rarely names migrant and foreign national women explicitly in its service narratives — St Mary's does, and acts on it.

Leadership and Governance

The organisation has a formal governance structure with a six-person board: Maria Basson (Managing Director), Frances Basson (Shelter Operations Manager), Zelda Trantraal (Chairperson), Dr Genine Josias (Treasurer), Mosidinyana Phohlela (Secretary), and Erika Bonnman (Fundraiser). This structure indicates an organisation that has moved beyond founder-only governance — a sign of institutional health and accountability.

St Mary's Home of Hope: Parow (children's safe house) and Paarl (women and children's shelter), Western Cape. NPO registered 2009, operational February 2012. Managing Director: Maria Basson. ABSA donations: Account 409 811 0316 (N1 City branch). Website: stmaryshomeofhope.org. Referrals: National Shelter Helpline 0800 001 005 (24hr, toll-free).