THE founder of a Pinetown-based women’s shelter for abused women and children, Thora Mansfield, says the best thing about what she does is empowering vulnerable people to take back their dignity and restore their self-esteem, and to help them on their journey to recovery.
Mansfield, who is also the director at the Open Door Crisis Care Centre, started the non-profit organisation (NPO) 27 years ago after an appeal from the Pinetown Police to assist with women who had been victims of domestic violence. Thora is a remarkable local woman we are honouring as we observe Women’s Month.
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The 87-year-old pensioner believes that her passion has enabled her to spend 27 years assisting vulnerable citizens. “Never lose sight of your calling of lobbying for the rights of women, giving them back their dignity and empowering them to become women of worth and take back their dignity. I think I have always been in the care and helping profession, wanting to be a nurse or a missionary. This challenge came to me at the age of 60, showing that age is irrelevant; it is just about passion and changing direction,” says Thora.
She explained that she opened the organisation with R100 in the bank and borrowed a computer and telephone from a local church. “Today, the organisation operates from a 30-roomed double-storey building with 10 counselling rooms, a play-therapy room for children in crisis and a training room. It operates with a staff of 20, including four social workers. It has a budget of over R4 million.”
Thora has no qualifications for the job. “In my youth, education was not of importance. Most young women during that time had to leave school to help the family survive and take care of younger children.” But, she believes that it is important to have the necessary qualifications if you want to set up a practice and offer formal psychotherapy and counselling.
When asked about her average day at work, Thora says: “I have highly qualified staff to undertake outreaches, counselling and support programmes. The best part of my day is monitoring and evaluating programmes, assisting with training lay counsellors and writing proposals to raise R4 million to sustain our services.”
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Thora advises those who may be studying to get into the industry to not call it a job but a calling. “It is advisable to take a course covering counselling and psycho-social services to see if being a psychologist or social worker is something that you really want to do, or to volunteer your services.”
When asked what is the worst thing about her job, Thora says it is hearing the stories of children being raped and listening to victims of sexual assault. “[It’s awful] to hear how their young bodies have been ravaged by diabolical acts of abuse, as well as [witnessing] the tragic loss of life through suicide, especially when the person is young. It’s a tragedy when someone takes their life when there is help out there,” says the founder.
Thora concludes: “The best thing that has happened to me as a consequence of the work is the fact that the work I created has become known as a leading organisation, not only locally but also internationally in the field of women and children’s issues. I have been privileged to travel extensively to Thailand, Bangkok, Singapore, Cambodia, the UK and the USA, speaking on key social issues and looking at best practices for shelters and trafficking for sexual exploitation. I have been privileged to win 24 awards for our work, and the most coveted is the Paul Harris Fellow rotary award, which has been awarded to Prince Phillip, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa.”
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