NICRO Newsletter
NICRO Newsletter

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 30 June 2022


nicro betzi
Dear supporters, staff and friends of NICRO

It’s been just over a week now since the government ended the mask mandate in South Africa and I am feeling like we might have finally beat the Coronavirus. The lifting of restrictions on public gatherings signal a reopening of the economy in full and at NICRO, we are hopeful that this translates into improved economic conditions for everyone in the country.

This short letter also marks the start of what we hope will become more regular communications with you, our loyal volunteers and supporters as we forge ahead with the work of realigning NICRO for success in the 21st century. Many of you will know the struggles NICRO has faced in the past few years. We have had to close down offices, reduce staff, stop some regular services and undertake the hard work of restructuring the whole organisation. Thanks to the hard work of the existing staff and board, and the support of our donors; we have managed to steady the ship and adjust our course, despite the devastating effects of the hard lockdown in the country.

I am also deeply grateful to our donors, supporters, national, provincial and local government for working with us as we made drastic changes and set NICRO on this new course for long-term success. The results of this work are starting to show. We now have 6 programmes available online. We have successfully renegotiated social services arrangements with Gauteng, KZN, Western Cape and Free State provinces. We have also made 7 courses for continuing professional development of social workers and social auxiliary workers available on our website. Going forward, we are working to make more of our services accessible to everyone with data and access to a smartphone or computer.

And this is just the start. We have been working on our Road Offences, Reintegration and Restoration and Adult Diversion programmes and we have seen steady growth in users across all programmes.

We are working to make sure you see and hear about NICROs work more often on TV, in the news, on the radio and see the value of our work much more often. To this end, I want to personally thank Zama Gumede and Thobeka Zulu for going on KZN TV, as well as Vibe FM and Inanda FM to talk about the vital work NICRO does. We also raise your hands for James Guni for going on Gauteng TV to talk about the reintegration restoration programme for young people. We look forward to seeing you do more work raising awareness of NICRO and the value of the work we do. (Link to media coverage page).

Of course, none of what we do will be possible without your generous and ongoing support and this is a gentle reminder that you can support NICROs Reintegration and Restoration work via debit order from as little as R50 a month. (Link to donations page)

Towards a crime free South Africa, together!

Betzi Pierce

CEO