Helping Hands | Knysna Caring Services | Charities, NGO's and NPO's in Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and George

Knysna Caring Services: Social Services' main aim is to empower and support people of any race, culture and age to better their circumstances.

Our head body is BADISA, which is a joint ministry of the DR church (Western and Southern Cape) and URCSA (Cape).

We provide social services in the following service areas:

White Location, Gouna, Flenter Location, Soutrivier, Joodse Kamp, Welbedachtt, Qolweni, Highway - West, Robololo, Rheenendal, Greenfields, Ruigtevlei, Karatara, Elandskraal, Part of Hornlee, Barrington, Redlands, Knysna (from Grey street upwards to Knysna heights)

Knysna Child and Family Welfare is responsible for the rest of the Knysna areas.

Average caseload of the social workers per month:

These numbers increase by approximately 17 per month.

Apart from our individual work, we also do group work and have various community development projects.

Group work:
The following groups are ongoing in our service area:

Kids Can Choose: This is a life skills programme for teenagers with behavioural problems and the focus group is grade 8 and 9 pupils.
Parental guidance groups: The biological parents of foster children must also attend these groups.

Community Development projects:
Eye on the child: Volunteers are trained to handle all problems regarding children in their community and to refer the more serious cases to the social worker. They also help the social worker to present groups and projects.
Soup kitchens and vegetable gardens: We have 9 soup kitchens and 3 vegetable gardens in the rural areas and informal settlements.
Foster parent training: There are currently 140 children in foster care. Yearly the foster parents get training in parent skills.
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome: This programme focuses on the effect of alcohol on the unborn child. It also motivates pregnant women to stop using alcohol.
Child protection week: This year 1061 preschool children benefited from this programme, which focussed on personal hygiene, and on measures that children can take to protect themselves from harm.
Youth groups: Youths who no longer attend school come to these groups to learn certain skills, which will help them to better their lives and circumstances.
Aids food parcels: With the help of Child welfare and PAWC we give 6 food parcels per month to families that suffer from Aids.
Integrated programme between the youth and the elderly: Government gives special funding towards projects, which promote better interaction between the youth and the elderly.
Cottage programme: This programme is still in the planning phase and will focus on the prevention of substance abuse.

The only subsidy we receive from Government is towards staff salaries, so we rely on fundraising for our group presentations and projects. We strive to do our work according to Christian norms and values, so enabling us to fulfill our vision: "Together we care for those in need."

Long term cases	320
Short term cases	147
Children's court	2
Coloured people	831
Indian people	none
Black people	387
White people	52
Foster placements	2
Children between 0-18 years	608
Adults between 19-54 years	633
People over the age of 55 years	29