TEARS Foundation

TEARS — which stands for Transform Education About Rape and Sexual abuse — is one of South Africa's most innovative and nationally significant GBV organisations, founded in 2012 by Mara Glennie, who is herself a survivor of gender-based violence. Since inception, TEARS Foundation has received more than 750,000 contacts from survivors and victims of GBV, rape, domestic violence, and child sexual abuse — and between March 2024 and February 2025 alone, they had 75,245 interactions with survivors across all platforms, assisting approximately 6,250 people every single month.

What makes TEARS exceptional — and uniquely important for this listing — is their technology model. TEARS understands that in South Africa, the cost of data is itself a barrier to safety. Their signature USSD service (*134*7355#) requires no data, no airtime, and no smartphone. It works on the most basic cellphone available. It uses geo-location technology to identify your location and send you — by SMS — the three nearest free GBV support services, so you can get help from whoever is physically closest to you, right now.

This is a profound insight: a survivor hiding in a bathroom with a basic phone and no airtime can dial *134*7355# and receive immediate help. No other GBV organisation in South Africa has built a service at this level of accessibility.

What They Offer Survivors

Help at Your Fingertips — *134*7355# (FREE, 24/7, No Data or Airtime Needed) TEARS Foundation's flagship service. Dial *134*7355# from any cellphone — no data, no airtime, no smartphone required. You will be asked: - Are you in a life-threatening situation? - If YES: an immediate call-back from a TEARS first responder is initiated. They will stay on the line with you until help arrives. - If NO: you can request a follow-up SMS or WhatsApp response, and receive an SMS with the three closest free GBV support services near your location. - Option 3 allows you to select a topic and receive a link with relevant information and resources.

A TEARS Intervention Specialist will follow up within 24 hours in all non-emergency cases.

Toll-Free Crisis Line — 0800 083 277 (24/7) TEARS' toll-free crisis line connects survivors directly to a trained Intervention Specialist — available around the clock. Call from any phone, free of charge.

Data-Free Access via MoyaApp Through a November 2025 partnership with MoyaApp — a South African-developed super app using telco reverse billing across MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom — survivors can access TEARS' full service directory, GBV educational resources, and crisis support completely data-free. Even when your data runs out, your access to help does not.

TEARS Intervention Specialists — Holistic Crisis Support A TEARS Intervention Specialist is often the first person a survivor speaks to about what happened to them. Their role goes far beyond simply answering the phone. They provide: crisis containment and emotional support; assistance developing exit strategies from dangerous relationships; help opening a police case; accompaniment to apply for a Protection Order; arrangement of transport to hospitals for medical examinations; identification of places of safety; referral to specialist counselling; and follow-up to ensure survivors receive everything they need.

South Africa's Largest Free GBV Services Database TEARS maintains the only national, comprehensive database of free GBV services in South Africa — currently listing over 2,500 organisations. This database is what powers the geo-location SMS referral on the USSD line. It is also the backbone of TEARS' national referral network, ensuring every Intervention Specialist can always find the right support for a survivor wherever they are.

SPEAK UP — Youth GBV Education (Ages 13–26) SPEAK UP is TEARS' youth-specific education and prevention programme — targeting young people aged 13 to 26 with animated, interactive, topic-relevant video content about consent, GBV, healthy relationships, and what to do if something happens. Accessible through the enhanced USSD service and online, it meets young people where they are.

DAISY — Digital Abuse Information System DAISY is TEARS' proprietary follow-up system — enabling Intervention Specialists to conduct structured follow-up calls with survivors who have previously contacted TEARS, tracking their progress and ensuring no one falls through the cracks.

Medi-App — Child Abuse Tracking for Clinicians Currently pending funding, the Medi-App is a software tool enabling doctors and nurses to record and securely share indicators of suspected child abuse — using a cloud system to flag if a child has been seen for suspected abuse at multiple facilities. This could be transformative for identifying patterns of child abuse that currently go undetected.

TEARS Training Academy — GBV-Responsive Workplaces A January 2026 launched training programme for HR professionals and workplace managers — equipping organisations to recognise GBV disclosures, respond with empathy and dignity, make appropriate referrals, and build genuinely safe workplace cultures. Available to organisations across all sectors.

The most important thing to remember about TEARS is this: if you have a basic cellphone and nothing else — no data, no airtime — you can still reach them. Dial *134*7355# for free, right now. Toll-free line: 0800 083 277 (24/7).