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Chapter 7 - Social Welfare

Private welfare and service organisations

There are thousands of private welfare and service organisations in South Africa. Just a few of the bigger organisations that have branches all over the country are mentioned here. It is useful to have up-to-date lists of the local organisations in your area.
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Child and Family Welfare Society

The Child and family Welfare Society deals with adoption, foster care and children's homes; protection and homes for destitute, neglected, physically or sexually abused children; and educare facilities. They train care-givers, and run [delete] community development and intervention programmes. Counselling and support groups are usually available for children and parents.

Family and Marriage Society of South Africa (FAMSA)

This is a non-profit organisation that helps to build and maintain good relationships in the family, in marriage and in the community. They offer a variety of services including counselling (advice) and education to individuals, groups and organisations about family relationships.
These are some of their activities:

• Pre-marital (before marriage) counselling
• Marriage counselling for couples and individuals
• Family counselling for parents and children
• Divorce counselling and mediation (negotiating between husband and wife)
• After-divorce counselling and after-divorce support groups
• Community education through talks, workshops and groups
• Training of professional groups in marriage counselling skills.

View their website: www.famsa.org.za

National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO)

NICRO is a national crime prevention non-profit organisation working towards a safer South Africa. It has offices in all the provinces in South Africa.
NICRO runs a number of projects and programmes to support their aims. These are:

• Diversion for youth offenders – this aims to divert youth away from the criminal justice system and into constructive programmes
• Community victim support project – assisting victims of crimes
• Offender reintegration programme – this aims to help current and past offenders and their families to reintegrate into society
• Economic Opportunities project – to help people start their own business

View their website: www.nicro.org.za