- Listed below are some of the services delivered under the Theosis
banner. Only those services with substantial Internet material
available are listed here. Please visit their pages...they need
your support.
-
- The House Drop-In Centre
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The House Drop-In Centre was founded in 1991 in the drug and
child prostitution vice
district of Johannesburg, South Africa.
The House delivers
24-hour services to young girls and women (ages 7 to 23) who are
destitute, victims of child sexual abuse, working in brothels, prostituting on the streets, are drug
addicted.
- Intombi Shelter
-
Intombi (the Zulu word for girl) Shelter, founded in 1996,
provides shelter, referral and integration services to 'straight' (not
addicted to drugs) children from the streets.
Children referred to Intombi typically share a background of drug
addiction, child sexual abuse, child prostitution, and of being homeless.
At Intombi the children
have to prove themselves capable and desirous to have a new lifestyle,
to accept discipline and attend life skills classes. This is a
short term facility from where children are reintegrated back home or
to other facilities that will best serve her need.
- Kulula Life Skills Centre
-
Kulula (means emancipation in Zulu) is situated on a farm in
the Pretoria district in the northern part of South Africa.
Children referred to Kulula from shelters typically come from child sexual
abuse backgrounds, and commercial sexual exploitation (child prostitution) or
survival sex is a common factor.
Kulula teaches self employment skills and personal skills to girls in
residence. From welding and horticulture to cooking and conversation
and conflict resolution skills....
- Alliance for the Girl Child on the
Street
-
The case of the girl child on the street, the child prostitute,
or child in commercial sexual exploitation, is still an
underreported and widely misunderstood phenomenon all over the
world.
She is the 'invisible' street child because, unlike the
boy child, she has to resort to the relative safety of brothels and
sleazy hotels and indulge in survival sex. She is not visible to
the public eye, and although their numbers are at least equal to the
boy child on the street, there are but a handful project all over the
world that caters for this child. The Alliance hopes to get
service providers together, to share information, and to further the
knowledge of the immense needs of these children.
- HIV / Aids Primary Prevention
-
Primary prevention programmes are run on the streets in the
slums where prostitution and drugs mix. One prostitute serves
about one thousand sex buyers per year--and if we can help to
educate, motivate and equip these girls to limit the spread of the HIV
it can make a major impact on society in general.
-
HIV is not killing and maiming only the 'immoral' in society
but carriers spread HIV to 'innocent' people--children, wives and
husbands.
- Lobbying and Activist Work
-
Governments need NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) to do
the research, the footwork and to uncover neglected areas of
need. Once discovered, these needs need to be brought to the
attention of the local authorities, and necessarily to the motivation
of the budgeting authorities. This takes years, in some
instances, and more than often it takes a heck of a fight...but success is
inevitable in the end.
-
Example: Theosis successfully 'discovered' and brought to public
attention that child prostitution, commercial sexual exploitation of
children and child sexual abuse was on the increase in South
Africa. Once this was done the challenge to lobby Government for
support and action, and to setup help-giving projects for these
children started. It took all of 6 years...
- Shareholder Services
-
Shareholder services are very important and an essential aspect
of Theosis. Shareholders are almost always located far from the
projects and cannot always visit to experience the joy of the hope
they help to create. These services take the joy to the
shareholders.
By April 2000 still the only Education Trust aimed to alleviate the
education and job skills needs of young people who lived their youth on the
inner-city streets. Without education, or skills training, these young
people will be doomed to fall back on the only trades they know--prostitution
and thieving. Theosis Education Trust hopes to change this scenario for
hundreds of young people each year.
