SADAG Toolkits

SADAG Counselling Containers

Community Counselling Containers Helping Over 600 000 People in 2022

The Counselling Container programme is an initiative SADAG introduced over 10 years ago as a pilot project aiming to bridge the gap in the lack of Mental Health support and services in informal and township settlements.

Through the success of the first project based in Diepsloot, we opened our second Counselling Container in Ivory Park. The Counselling Container offers free face-to-face counselling, referrals, support, and psychoeducation to all the community members living in and around both areas.

Many of the residents are exposed to continuous psychosocial problems such as high rates of unemployment, crime, poverty, and GBV. The impact of living in such an environment often leads to Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, PTSD, and Substance Abuse issues. In a community where there is little access to Mental Health services and resources, our help is extremely important. The Counselling Container Team reached over 16,102 individuals through our school talks, clinic talks, and events.

Awareness is very important to help with prevention and interventions, through our talks and activations we are able to empower the communities we work in with vital Mental Health information. We are also happy to announce that we have launched two Men’s Mental Health Support Groups. The Container Team runs 6 Support Groups in total, 4 in Diepsloot and 2 in Ivory Park.

We are hoping to open many more containers in 2023 and look forward to the year ahead to reach new goals.

Image: Top Left: Men’s Support Group in Ivory Park; Top Right: Clinic Talk in Ivory Park;
Bottom Left: Wellness Stand at Busy Corner Mall, Ivory Park; Bottom Right: Mental Health Support Group, Diepsloot

Spreading Christmas Joy in the Community

The Counselling Containers annual Christmas Parties were a memorable day for the children of Diepsloot and Ivory Park. These children are either orphans, vulnerable or affected by HIV. SADAG would like to thank those who generously pledged a shoebox full of clothing and toys for each child, as it brings some festive joy and happiness into their lives. A special thank you goes out to the SADAG Volunteers and Corporates who helped with donating toys, clothes and toiletries - your act of kindness is dearly appreciated by us.The happiness and beautiful smiles on the children’s faces showed their gratitude as they each received their own gift.