With initial seed funding of R250 000, workshops were launched by psychologist, Dr Pat Cane, the founder of the organization from the USA, and local trainers from Western Cape, South Africa . 

Organisations targeted were Prisons, Police Stations, HIV/Aids organisations and the Department of Education. Thanks in part to the initial groundwork laid by Rotary Newlands, Capacitar SA is now a national, well recognised and established training company, offering workshops and materials  to a wide variety of community-based grassroots and professional organisations.

These organisations include Rape Crisis, Operation Hunger, Healing of  Memories, Kuleleka (dealing with bereavement in children), Sustainability Institute, Trauma Counselling Rooms in Police Stations, Aids Response, Trauma Centre and the Department of Education, Dept of Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation and Dept of  Correctional Services .

Funding in 2007 covered the following areas -

·         Translation work for R25 000.  Manuals are becoming available in several languages, including Xhosa, Afrikaans, and Zulu;

·         Trauma rooms  R25 000 has been allocated to assisting volunteer trauma counsellors in Ocean View and Diep River Trauma Rooms, with funding also being provided by the counsellors themselves and Rotary Clubs of  Kromboom and Wynberg;

·         Dept of Correctional Services. Workshops have spread to the Dept of Correctional Services, with Rotary providing R5 000 to Worcester Reform School, who supplemented the funds to train teachers, nursing staff and psychologists to deal with children removed from public schools due to serious crimes committed.

The Dept of Education is now funding workshops and materials, with three educational psychologists, Berenice Daniels, Adam de Vos and Lemeez Gasant, becoming trainers of trainers and using wellness practices with groups of children and on an individual therapeutic basis. 

In 2007 Capacitar was recognised as one of the most successful trainings implemented by the department’s Southern Metropole,  which is responsible for 250 000 children in approximately 240 schools stretching from informal settlements outside Cape Town to Simonstown and Ocean View. With only 15 psychologists and 7 social workers to cater for the psycho-social needs of students, training of staff by volunteers and NGOs is essential.

As a result of support from Newlands Rotary, partnerships are being forged between Capacitar SA, NGOs and Government Departments, which helps to make the work self-sustainable and capacity building. This can be modelled by other Rotary clubs around the country.

Organisations are now approaching Capacitar SA for training as word-of-mouth spreads about the effectiveness of the practices.   Aids Response, for example, has sent their trainer of caregivers to become a Capacitar trainer of trainers.

Project Coordinator    Sharon Johnson 

Capacitar is a Spanish word meaning “to empower, to bring to life”.  Trauma teams are now working in 35 countries around the world for Capacitar International. Practices, such as visualisation, breathwork, massage and acupressure are offered as a means for people to heal and renew their body, mind and spirit as a way of life. Dr Cane believes we need to live with wisdom, balance and compassion in the midst of the struggle of isolation and suffering experienced by many.  She describes the challenge of the work is to take on the wound and the struggle given to us in life as the catalyst for healing and transformation. Dr Pat Cane has been named a Paul Harris Fellow, as has Capacitar trainer and Vice Chairperson of the organisation, Sharon Johnson, wife of Rotarian Greg Johnson.