Changing our world one life at a time
2009-11-26
ROCK COMMUNITY CARE, a non-profit organisation in Paarl, not only gives a helping hand to young pregnant girls and women, but also reaches out to the community in many other ways. Rock Community Care was established in 2000 and started out as a pregnancy crisis centre. Today they also have a facility for youngsters to do their assignments and find information on the internet. According to Mark Cerfonteyn and his wife Jan, the founders of the organisation, they saw a need in Paarl for a pregnancy crisis centre. “At first it went very slow and now, nine years later, the number of people we are helping has really picked up. People first want to see that they can trust you.” The Pregnancy Crisis Centre is affilated to Africa Cares for Life and provides free pregnancy testing as well as pre- and post-abortion or pregnancy counselling. The crisis centre provides ongoing support to families as well as access to clinics, social workers and other services including safe accommodation in abusive situations. “When a girl comes to us to find out if she is pregnant or not, we talk her through the whole process. If she is pregnant we explain to her all her options and allow her to choose what she would like to do. “Whatever she decides we will support her through it,” said Glenda Sweetnam, social worker at Rock Community Care. If the girl decides to keep the child, the crisis centre provides her baby with clothing, food, toiletries and other necessities for up to two years. Currently they help 78 babies, with 16 more babies that will be born over the next three months. According to Mark this is to make sure that the mothers have one less thing to worry about, as a baby changes your whole life. Some of the girls however do get support from their family in this regard. If the girl decides not to have the baby she can let her baby be adopted or go for an abortion. “Some of the girls that come here are very young, as young as 12 years old, and we find that the girls are not properly educated about sex. Everyone knows about condoms, but not everyone knows how to use it correctly,” said Glenda. The centre is also involved in ongoing awareness promotion in schools and life skills training for groups. Rock Community Care also has a computer centre, called Flipside, to assist and develop the lives of young people in Paarl. Flipside provides a safe environment for learning and gives students from both secondary and tertiary levels access to computers and the internet to complete their projects. According to Rock Community Care, only 8% of school pupils in Paarl have acces to computers at home. They also provide a relaxed environment for young people to connect with others and it has proved to be a much needed counselling and mentoring area. They also host various life skills events, seminars and community projects. Rock Community Care also has an Action Team whose functions include emergency relief projects, poverty alleviation, provision of clothing and food and basic renovation of existing buildings, homes and community projects. “Our goal is to have a centre that makes a difference and to establish a safe home for mothers where they can grow. I would also like to have someone who can teach the girls how to work on a computuer so that they can learn new skills,” said Mark. “We can’t touch everyone, but we can make a difference in one persons life.” Anyone who would like to donate baby clothes, toiletries, toys or money can visit the Rock Crisis Centre at 27 Berg River Boulevard, Paarl, or contact 021-872-7935.
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