Institute for Healing of Memories, Cape Town

The requests for Healing of Memories workshops received from various groups highlighted the fact that the workshops have the potential for a much wider application than the initial focus on healing apartheid wounds. Organisations who have referred people to the workshops included those working with teenage prostitutes and survivors of domestic abuse. Community work students and community peace workers were booked on workshops to improve their “emotional coping skills”. Refugees have become an important focus group, with strong links formed with the major refugee organisations in the Western Cape province. Prison authorities requested workshops as part of a restorative justice programme, and as a result of the success of these, requested more workshops for 2006. PACSA in KwaZulu-Natal Province made a strong argument for the need to create “safe spaces” for those affected by the Aids pandemic in KZN to talk about their suffering and build resilience. They referred especially the grandmothers who care for their orphaned grandchildren, and who have lost children both to political violence and Aids, resulting in “multiple woundedness”.