When the demands for substance abuse services increased from the communities of Diepsloot, Zevenfontein, Witkoppen and Lanseria, a social worker was sent out to render services on an ad-hoc basis. These communities had to endure travelling constraints of 40km to access services from the Johannesburg clinic. The social worker utilized the municipal offices in Diepsloot Ext. 2, containers and shacks were also used as counselling offices. In the early 2000, a partnership was formed with the Rotary Club Morningside; who eventually built an office for the organisation within the Methodist Church property in Diepsloot. Similar challenges to Alexandra were experienced in an effort to break though into the black communities. SANCA Central Rand will continue to offer services to poor communities which can hardly afford a fee for rehabilitation services, but this can only be achieved through sustainable partnerships with the government and private sector. The services that that we provide to the community of Diepsloot is free of charge as we are aware that it is a very poor community.

It is a not a secret that the Diepsloot is one of the biggest contributors in substance abuse statistics in the country. Many families who are affected by this major problem have a serious challenge of where they will FIND FUNDS to send their loved ones for rehabilitation, let alone if they will find a facility readily available. This service will go a long way in ensuring that Diepsloot residents have something to fall back on should they experience drug abuse in their families and communities.
There are still a high number of unemployed people in Diepsloot and thus there a great need of SANCA service and there is a need for this partnership to continue as we strive to offer accessible and affordable service.

More and more people are aware of our services and hence our case load has increased tremendously. Since then the service has grown to the extent that more service user required medical assistance to help cope with withdrawal and cravings. Through the market research questionnaire, done annually as well as through continuous community meetings held from time to time. The curriculum used is participative and we use the responses of the clients to assist us in planning our programme and the content thereof. In terms of evaluation, at the end of each session question and answer sessions takes place and evaluation forms are distributed to determine how the session has affected the clients.

Through the follow – up visitations the staff enables those beneficiaries who have been in our programme to share on which things can be improved and which other services can also be provided to further ensure that our intervention makes an impact. Also through open invitations to our Annual General Meeting were they can monitor our progress. As SANCA Diepsloot we appreciate all the support we have from the Morningside Rotary Club, DSD and all the local stakeholders from Diepsloot and we our relationship we grow and stay throughout the years