Welcome to the Ufosa Foundation!

UFOSA is WATCHing.  Watching out for Women And The CHildren...

There is little dispute that in South Africa sexual abuse and domestic violence are rampant, having reached all but epidemic proportions.  A woman is killed by her spouse on average every six days.

The UFOSA Foundation is tackling this problem head on through the establishment of its WATCH programme of abuse centres, assisting victims of the following:

• Rape
  South Africa has one of the highest incidences of rape in the world.  Police statistics show that 54,926 women were raped in 2005/06, but many rapes go unreported; women's groups say this is just a small percentage of the total number, and estimate that a woman is raped every 26 seconds in South Africa; and a child every 15 minutes. 

• Incest
  Almost a quarter of all South African children have or will be sexually abused before age 18 - one in three girls and one in five boys.  In most cases the child is raped or molested by his or her father, brother, or another family member – the very people who are supposed to protect the child.

• Domestic Violence
  Domestic violence is a common phenomenon in South Africa, inflicted upon 1 in 4 women.  Also perpetrated against children, the range of abuses includes physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, as well as stalking, forced isolation in the home and other controlling behaviours.  The trauma of domestic violence is life-long and affects a woman and her children physically, emotionally and psychologically.

• HIV / AIDS
  In many cases it is almost inevitable that a woman, or young girl, who has been raped will have contracted this appalling disease.  The nationwide Watch centres will provide UFOSA with the vehicle to assist such victims in 30 communities and will provide the maximum care, counselling and appropriate medication possible.

Ufosa is aiming to establish a WATCH Centre in each of the 30 communities.  This is a long-term goal, and below is an initial outline of the first of these:

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Possible sites for the first 2 Watch centres have been identified, and are being considered.