Emma van der Walt: Brave To Love

Healing Lives, Transforming Communities, Impacting Cities

Introduction

Brave to Love is a registered Non-Profit Organization and a Public Benefit Orginization (930065398) that reaches out to the streets of South Africa. We support and help people through community, rehabilitation, restoration, counselling and different means. Training and social development is key to the restoration process. Brave to Love consists of four areas of outreach; Street, Grace Girl, Brave Heart Prisons and Adopt a Life development program.

STREETS

Our street team consist of a group of volunteers that bring resources to people on the street. The street teams are involved in the prisons, with relief work and loving those that are in desperate situations. In South-Africa our unemployment rates are 27% meaning more than 6 million people do not have work which forces people to drugs and living on the streets. The street teams connect with drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes, homeless and many children. They serve at a Love Carnival on the streets loving people and children. There are many new outreaches they will be involved in.

The prison outreach program allows inmates/residents to work through forgiveness and realize their full potential. Statistics show that South Africa has a prison population of 163,160 incarcerated individuals. The juvenile facilities/detention centres are currently housing 43,799 juveniles/youth residents in South Africa. The Correctional Services Act,7 defines a juvenile as any person under the age of 21 years of age. Due to the lack of juvenile centres in South Africa, some of these youthful offenders are housed in adult facilities. Emthonjeni Youth Centre at Baviaanspoort prison (outside Pretoria) currently has 320 youth offenders.

The mission is to equip these youngsters with the necessary tools and skills in order to become productive citizens as well as offer them an opportunity to deal with any social issues they may have. This will be done through various training courses and exercised (including arts and dance). Statistics also show that 90% of the youth who are incarcerated, are there as a result of factors including unemployment of one or both parents, no father figure or positive role model in their life, family members who are currently in crime circles and some growing up in violent households.

The Brave to Love team will consist of a group of skilled individuals (some with numerous years of experience in prison outreaches) who will teach them life skills and equip them with the necessary skills and tools that will allow them to move back into their communities and become positive influences on other young people. The team will be there to support and mentor them through the journey inside and outside the prison.

GRACE GIRL

Grace Girl is an outreach and program that reaches out to ladies working in the sex industry. It is a support group for women. We offer community, love and friendship to bring support. The aim is to reach, restore and equip women, providing friendship, support groups and access to avenues that they can utilise in pursuit of a healthy, fulfilling life.

The team meets ladies where they are at and uses beautiful gifts to show the women that they are loved. The team sources sponsor to host beautiful dinners, pamper days, training days and opportunity days for the purpose of loving and developing the ladies. Grace Girl brings hope to often hopeless circumstances supporting each woman where the need is seen. Our team journeys with women on a long-term base, knowing that each girl has her own story to tell. We support pregnant mommies and provide counselling where needed. Grace Girl has a group of committed men and women volunteers that help bring support to these ladies. Grace Girl has started to provide computer training, photography courses and baking classes for the ladies to provide a better future.

Issues impacting women in the sex industry

More women are employed by the sex industry between any other time in history
66-90% of women in the sex industry were sexually abused as children.
89% of women in the sex industry said they wanted to escape, but had no other means for survival.
The average age of entry into prostitution is 12-14 years.
66-90% of women in the sex industry were sexually abused as children.
Compared to the general population, women in the sex industry experience higher rates of...
Substance Abuse Issues
Rape and Violent Assault
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Domestic Violence
Depression
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
History of Childhood Sexual Abuse (Between 66-90%)
Lack of a healthy support system
Economic hardship or lack of education and employable job skills

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):

PTSD is a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world

Women in the sex industry experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at rates equivalent to veterans of combat war. 89% of women in the sex industry said they wanted to escape, but had no other means for survival. The women in this industry face a myriad of issues that impact their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

There are many women in the sex industry who would say they made a choice to enter sex work, yet they still find themselves feeling trapped. Most of the women we serve to experience the same victim vulnerability factors named in the Push Pull diagram.

For example, economic hardship or lack of education and employable job skills; place this woman in the context of a culture where there is a huge demand for sex, and suddenly sex work seems like a solution to her problems. Since the negative effect of sex work increases over time according to a qualitative study done by Bernadette Barton, often it is only after she has been in it a while and wants to leave that she realizes she is trapped.

ADOPT A LIFE

Adopt a Life is focussed on social and enterprise development where a candidate is evaluated and assessed by a professional team of counselling and industrial psychologists to establish the best possible road to restoration for each individual. This evaluation is presented and companies and individuals of the community have the opportunity to get involved in the restoration of the candidate. Companies and individuals partnering with this project of adopting a life receives monthly feedback. Poverty and lack of education and opportunities are the major reasons for the challenges individuals in need of restoration faces.

PHASE ONE - Rescue and Rehabilitation: The rescue and rehabilitation process is where an individual is rescued from Human Trafficking or their direct surrounding which can be the streets, a prison or a brothel. Rehabilitation from the trauma happens through a rehab, safehouse of halfway house together with the support of a medical team.

PHASE TWO - Restoration and Development: After the individual has gone through a rehabilitation process of the trauma and restoration phase two is introduced that provides support with counselling, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. The assessment of a person will guide in the area of development whether to learn a skill that can provide an income or a path to further education.

PHASE THREE - Reintegration and Support: This is where the individual can reintegrate back into society and a normal work environment to live a life of freedom. Support is given to help the individual to stay on course with development and growth.

GRACE GIRL FAMILY HOMES

Brave To Love are currently supporting ‘Our Home’ a home for ladies that were victims of Human Trafficking. Part of the vision of Brave To Love is to set-up more home in the city for ladies that are ready to exit the sex industry. These restoration homes will function on family values to the best of its ability. For a person to truly restore, recover and rehabilitate one need to take them out of their current environment into a family type home of mentorship, support and development. Most human trafficked victims, former prisoners and addict do not have any form of support once ready to leave their current state and environment. The restoration home will focus on providing rescuing, rehabilitation, counselling, emotional support, education, training, future opportunities and development helping men and women to reintegrate back into a normal working environment. Life coaches, psychologist, business people, volunteers all form part of this amazing team to make this happen.

GET INVOLVED

Volunteers: Please contact us to become part of the Brave to Love Team. We are excited and passionate about our teams. Volunteer time or skill.

Donation: