ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the strategies adopted to eliminate the factors which threaten to cripple the nation at its very roots, its children. It focuses on malnutrition, learning difficulties, violence with a specific emphasis on sexual abuse and political violence and mental health problems of children. The chapter argues that in South Africa capitalism and apartheid have combined to deny many black children these nutrients at every stage of their development. Philani is a community-based health and nutrition organisation which operates in a number of areas in Crossroads and Khayelisha. The organisation is committed to the protection of the rights of each child, to proper nutrition and health care and the right to grow and develop their full mental and physical potential. The chapter also provides two more models of community based mental health services: The Empilweni Centre and the South Coast Hospice Trauma Counselling Network.
