Introduction
The collection comprises the complete set of "Iphepha Ndaba", the official newsletter of the Khulumani Western Cape Support Group for Survivors of Violence and Torture, covering the period March 1999 to August 2003. The newsletters are minutes if meetings that had been called by the Trauma Centre for the Survivors of Violence and Torture for ex-political prisoners and survivors of apartheid-related human rights abuses. The Trauma Centre constituted these meetings to assist victims, some of whom had testifies at the Human Rights Violations (HRV) hearings of the TRC, to break through the isolation that resulted from their various experiences of trauma. The meetings also served to aid the victims to cope with the particular difficulty of their expectations regarding their victim status not being adequately or appropriately met by the post-apartheid government. It was decided that the meetings would take the form of healing story-telling sessions at which schooled counsellors would assist the victims and survivors. The languages employed by the victims and counsellors are IsiXhosa and English. The collection also documents the views of victims with regard to the stance of Government on the issue of reparations.
