Mosaic was established in 1993 after extensive research had been done to determine the priority needs of victims of violence. Activities began with the training of “grassroots” women from within specifically targeted areas to be community workers and court workers in those same areas. Mosaic is an organisation with a strong understanding of and expertise in the field of domestic violence. It is a community based, non-governmental organisation (NGO) with a specific focus on preventing and reducing abuse and domestic violence, particularly for women and youth living in disadvantaged communities.

Mosaic delivers a range of social support services and projects to clients (mainly women and girls) caught up in gender violence and in more recent years because of the correlation, to those infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS. All support services have been determined by the clients’ real and perceived needs and by various community leaders and forums, are free, culturally appropriate and easily accessible to clients. Its core services are: educational/public awareness presentations (abuse, human rights, legal rights, and HIV/AIDS); medical assistance/advice (reproductive health and HIV/AIDS); skills training and development (permaculture vegetable gardens - for food security and healthy living; HIV/AIDS; and life skills); support groups; legal services (court support and other); and counselling services backed by appropriate networking and referral services. Advocacy and training for policy changes are key elements in our work towards reducing the incidence of sexual violence.

Mosaic’s main objectives include increased availability and accessibility to high quality, integrated services for survivors of abuse and domestic violence. Mosaic’s services are conducted in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa and focus on:

Mosaic is a unique in that it was the first organisation in the Western Cape to start working with domestic violence complainants directly at the courts. There is in fact no other organisation in the Western Cape who is either providing holistic service to applicants in court, or researching the effectiveness of government procedures within courts.

As a result of Mosaic being integrally involved in community affairs, our networking relationships expand and consolidate on a regular basis.

Mosaic’s head office is in Wynberg at its community centre. This centre also houses a training kitchen, a training hall and a SRH clinic. Mosaic also has small outreach centres (temporary strcutures) in Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Site B, Harare, Dunoon, Nyanga, Philippi, Mfuleni, and Delft. Brown’s Farm will be an additional outreach centre. In addition Mosaic has an office in 16 domestic violence courts in and around Cape Town. Mosaic reaches more than 100,000 people each year through these offices.

Mosaic’s name is symbolic for abused people putting the broken pieces of their lives together and creating better lives for themselves.

Mosaic is an NGO, a ‘non-government organization’ and a Section 21 company. This means that it is not part of the government and it is also not a business to make money. Mosaic has to raise all of its money from donations and grants especially as all of its services to abused people are given free of charge.