Impact & Success Stories

South Africa’s government has declared Gender-Based Violence a national disaster. The numbers explain why our work can’t wait.

The Numbers

  • About a third of South African women (33.1%) have experienced physical violence in their lifetime, and 35.5% (an estimated 7.8 million women) have experienced physical or sexual violence combined. (HSRC, First South African National GBV Study, 2022)
  • Only around 7.7% of sexual offences in South Africa are reported to police — meaning roughly 92% go unreported. (Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust)
  • A woman is murdered every three hours in South Africa; the femicide rate is roughly five times the global average. (Africa Check, UN Women)
  • Women with disabilities experience physical abuse at 29.3% versus 21.7% for women without disabilities, and twice the rate of sexual violence (14.6% vs 7.2%). (HSRC 2024 disability-focused GBV survey, via DSTI)
  • Global research shows children with disabilities are 3.7 times more likely to experience violence than non-disabled children. (WHO, 2012, published in The Lancet)
  • An estimated ~270,000 people live with autism in South Africa, with ~5,000 new cases a year — alongside the WHO’s global estimate of roughly 1 in 100 people. (WHO autism fact sheet)
  • Roughly 17 babies are born with permanent hearing loss every day in South Africa (6,000+ a year); fewer than 10% of newborns get hearing screening, and many children aren’t diagnosed until 20–30 months old — well past the recommended benchmark of screening by 1 month, diagnosis by 3 months, and intervention by 6 months. (Spotlight, 2026, Daily Maverick, 2026)
  • SAPS recorded 43,037 rape offences nationally in 2022/23. Gauteng was highest (8,811, ~20% of the national total), then KwaZulu-Natal (8,468) and Eastern Cape (6,883). (SAPS Q4 2022/23 crime statistics)
  • In the Eastern Cape, 45.9% of all reported crimes against children were rapes in 2022/23, versus a national average of 38.3%; 90.1% of child rape victims nationally are girls. (Statistics South Africa)
  • Limpopo (104 calls per 100,000 people) and North West (103 per 100,000) had the highest rates of GBV helpline calls of any province, 2020–2023. (TEARS Foundation Data Report, 2024)

Success Stories

Real stories from our programmes will be added here as they launch.