Johannesburg - With South Africa registering some of the most alarming cases of
gender-based violence, the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre (GBVCC) hopes to swiftly assist victims to get immediate help.
Centre manager Nomathemba
Malvern urged victims of gender-based violence to continue to report incidents to this national call centre where they get to speak to trained social workers who are experienced in responding to cases of GBV and operate as agents.
The command centre, located in Pretoria, was launched in November 2014 to provide support and counselling to victims of GBV.
It connects victims with social worker agents who provide telephonic counselling and support and; also direct the victims’ cases to a social worker close to their residential area.
Victims are also allowed to send messages, callback requests and even communicate with agents via Skype.
Malvern said the 48 social workers employed at the centre are able to communicate in all official South African languages and they were also
considering adding sign language.
“Our social workers operate 24/7 and offer psychosocial support and counselling. When the centre was opened on November 2014, we recruited social workers from
universities and eight experienced supervisors to nurture them.
“Today I can confidently say I am working with an experienced team because they have been with us since the beginning of the project,” said Malvern.
Malevern said their service was in demand, receiving over 76000 calls between January and September this year.
She said they also received 559 messages from complainants who asked to be called back. She said during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and throughout the festive season they were expecting the number of callers to rise.
She said the centre employed 48 social workers who rotate day shift and night shift.
Malvern said they also partnered with the SAPS to assist victims who require to open cases and need further
assistance.
“That is why we are using AfriGIS maps to track the callers. We found this very important because we refer those who need further assistance to the SAPS. For example, if someone wants to leave their home, then we call the police to escort them. This is because most of the time we receive complaints about domestic violence,” she said.
She added: “But for us to advise a victim depends on what the caller is complaining about. For instance, let’s say the person was raped two years ago and didn’t open a case. We will try to find why they didn’t open a case. If they know the perpetrator then we will have a conference call and talk to both of them,” Malvern said.
Malvern said they also refer GBV victims to clinics, hospitals and courts.
“We refer them to different departments based on their needs. We also trace their locations to spot the clinics, courts, hospitals and hospitals (closer to them). We write referral letters for victims and email to the social workers who are close to their areas to assist them. We also have social workers who are based in hospitals,” she said.
Malvern also encouraged
perpetrators to also come out for assistance.
“We do give counselling to the perpetrators as well. Some of them suffer from anger and we provide them with anger management
(counselling). We also appeal to perpetrators to call us for help,” she said.
The centre can be reached on an emergency line number 0800428428 or complainants can sent a “Please call me” request to *120*7867# or sms 31531.