Women's Support Centre

About the Women's Support Centre

The Women's Support Centre is a community-based NPO located on Greenpoint Road in Buffalo Flats, a township on the western edge of East London in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape. Buffalo Flats forms part of a belt of densely populated communities — including Scenery Park, Ndevana, and Mdantsane — that together represent one of the Eastern Cape's most significant concentrations of urban poverty and social vulnerability.

Services

Based on information from the National Department of Social Development's GBV resource directory for the Eastern Cape, the Women's Support Centre provides:

• Lay counselling for abused women and children — accessible, community-level counselling delivered by trained lay counsellors, providing an important first level of psychosocial support to survivors in a community context.
• Screening and assessment for referral — identifying survivors who need higher-level services (psychiatric, legal, medical, or shelter) and facilitating those connections.
• Community outreach — direct engagement with community members in Buffalo Flats and surrounding areas on GBV awareness, prevention, and available support.

Community Context

Buffalo Flats is a working-class township with high unemployment and limited access to professional services. The Women's Support Centre fills a critical gap by providing services within the community itself, removing the barriers of transport cost and distance that prevent many survivors in township communities from reaching city-based organisations.