PWMC Paula Wilson Media Consulting

The Adonis Musati Project is an NPO in Cape Town that offers holistic assistance to vulnerable and disenfranchised refugees and asylum seekers. Amongst the most marginalized groups of people in South Africa, many have survived massive human rights violations in their home countries and in transit (e.g. sexual violence, gang rape, muggings, physical attacks, witnessing the murder of family members, etc.), and face difficulty supporting themselves and their children once in South Africa. Our mission to empower individuals to overcome their daily challenges and promote individual sustained growth and self-reliance, while fostering sustainable support systems within their communities.

In April of 2013 AMP launched its Peer Support Group Programme, which aims to equip and empower a select number of resilient and capable individuals from within the migrant community in Cape Town to address the mental health needs of their peers, and assist them to move forward in life. By equipping these individuals with counselling skills to assist their peers, we extend sustainable assistance to a larger number of vulnerable individuals.

Peer-facilitated support groups are run out in the local communities, with the aim to build a safe and emotionally supportive environment for the beneficiaries. These group sessions focus on building psycho-social life skills which assist participants in recovering from past traumas, and equip them to master their daily challenges. By using the group work model, this programme builds a network of support amongst asylum seekers and refugees which fosters an environment of encouragement, emotional support, and individual growth.

Through the pilot programme AMP has assisted 50+ individuals, and the results have been largely positive. Amongst those who participated in the pilot, we have seen increased confidence and motivation, decrease in depression, improved familial relationships, improved health practices, improved access to and understanding of documentation, increased employment, enrollment in English courses and/or adult education programmes, improved access to healthcare and public education for their children, access to trauma counseling, and other necessary services.

We would now like to share these findings with interested stakeholders who would like to learn more, and spread awareness of our developing NGO and the work we are doing in the Cape Town asylum seeker and refugee community.

We plan to schedule an event for February 2014 to which we would like to invite interested stakeholders from our local community who would like to learn more. We will share an engaging presentation about the programme and results from our pilot project which ran from April 2013. We would like to use it as an opportunity to network and build up relationships with individuals and/or businesses in the area.

Thus, we extend this humble invitation to you to join us—please respond if you are interested in attending such an event in February of 2014.

With warm regards,