An inspired South African program is to be run in Britain. The architect of this unique and effective rehabilitation program is Khulisa founder and award-winning entrepreneur, Lesley-Ann van Selm.

The Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative was founded in South Africa in 1997 in response to rapidly growing crime rates, and has become one of the leading crime prevention initiatives in that country, with 12 years of remarkable programme delivery during a period of extraordinary transformation.

Khulisa (a Zulu word meaning 'let the young child grow') employs therapeutic programmes it has developed to address crime prevention among offenders and at-risk youth, in schools and low-income communities to effect radical behaviour change. Its more than two-dozen programmes seek to reach into the heart and mind of individuals caught up in the cycle of violence and offer the basis for new approaches and mindsets that apply non-violence to personal and social problems.

Khulisa has introduced a number of tried and tested programmes in South Africa aimed at reducing crime, particularly amongst youth, thus bringing a fresh perspective to crime prevention in the country. Among the most important indicators of the success of Khulisa’s work is the reduced recidivism rate among those who have participated in a KSA programme. In 2007, recidivism among prisoners as a whole in South Africa was 80%, but for Khulisa 'graduates' the rate was just 20%. Through their participation, the individuals achieved sustainable rehabilitation and no longer pose a threat to society.

"Khulisa (a Zulu word meaning 'let the young child grow') employs therapeutic programmes to address crime prevention among offenders and at-risk youth."

Khulisa is seeking to introduce some of its programmes into the UK and, over the past 2½ years, the organisation has engaged on numerous fronts with parties in the UK, including Ashoka, A4e, the National Offender Management Service and the Youth Justice Board, some of whom have paid visits to South Africa to gain an understanding of the potential of Khulisa's programmes.

Like South Africa, the UK is experiencing a serious increase in violent crime, particularly amongst youth and in multi-racial/multi-cultural communities.

Extensive contacts and visits with relevant parties in the UK by Khulisa, and in South Africa with interested parties from the UK, over the past two-and-a half years suggest that programmes such as Khulisa's could fill an important gap in the UK crime prevention/rehabilitation system by providing the crucial element of personal development and transformation.

As a result, Khulisa has established a legal and physical presence in the UK to facilitate the introduction of Silence the Violence in the country. Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative (Khulisa) is a charitable trust which was registered in England and Wales in 2007 and is associated with Khulisa South Africa (KSA).

For Khulisa's founder, Lesley Ann van Selm, this is the first step in expanding the impact of the programme.

"Our ultimate goal is to become a significant player in the fields of youth and crime prevention in the UK. We firmly believe that once STV has been tried and evaluated there, it can be scaled up for implementation in a wide variety of UK settings, establishing the basis for the introduction of other Khulisa programmes in coming years and possible expansion to European countries."

STV, Khulisa's Silence the Violence programme, has been identified as being the most relevant product for piloting and replication in the UK. The pilot programme has been revised for the UK and is now well underway in Britain with master training having taken place in April 2009. The programme will now be rolled out into a number of correctional facilities and community settings in the country including HMP Cookham Wood, Kent, a facility for people on remand and sentenced children under 18, and in Hackney, London where Khulisa will work in partnership with A4e, a market leader in global public service reform.

"Silence the Violence" is a 14-part programme that leads participants on a journey of self-discovery in which they become aware of the extent of their own violence or the violence present in their lives, its origin and effective non-violent choices.

The programme illustrates how violence (physical, emotional, and verbal) can become ingrained in cultures and belief systems and how it emerges in daily interactions. Participants learn practical ways to reduce violent behaviour.

On completion of the programme, participants join support groups, with Khulisa's support, that enable individuals to extend the programme's practices and philosophy into other areas of their lives, such as families and their immediate community. This ensures the sustainability of the behaviour change process.

Khulisa has established a base in Richmond, Surrey, and engaged an Administrator. In addition, master trainers and facilitators who will take on the responsibility for rolling the programme out and maintaining quality assurance, have been identified from a wide selection of candidates ranging from psychologists, professional medical doctors and professional trainers to business people, ex-offenders, drama therapists and university graduates.

The impact of Khulisa's work has been widely recognised, both within South Africa and beyond, and in 2009, Khulisa and its Managing Director Lesley Ann van Selm won the prestigious Southern Africa Social Entrepreneurship 'Pinnacle Award' for work that has 'proven to have a transformative social impact.'

Van Selm's early career was characterised by a series of jobs at which she turned her entrepreneurial spirit to creating new opportunities and developing her own skills. A self-proclaimed "graduate of the school of hard knocks", she worked in sales, marketing and travel, often at companies that she started up herself.

"While we might not all speak the same languages or come from the same backgrounds.... we are all driven by common desires and goals."

Then, armed only with her marketing expertise, experience in building companies for a new South Africa and a genuine belief in the importance of inter-cultural dialogue, she established the Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative in 1997.

"Khulisa evolved from very humble beginnings," says van Selm. "Twelve years ago, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel with Credo Mutwa, the great African spiritual leader, all around the world researching a common thread in cultural storytelling traditions.

When I returned to South Africa, I developed a programme to help prison offenders to use this common storytelling language to assess their own place in the world, and to ultimately lead to their rehabilitation. I piloted the programme at a prison and was humbled and gratified by the immediate positive response among the offenders."

While we might not all speak the same languages or come from the same backgrounds, says van Selm, we are all driven by common desires and goals.

"When something in our personal histories, our backgrounds or our communities is driving us to act in an immoral way, the resulting feelings of worthlessness and shame are identical. By harnessing these common responses and providing an alternative that allows for hope, growth and development, we can literally turn lives around."

Offenders often come from backgrounds of violence and poverty, says van Selm. "One of the things we have learnt is that a tendency towards crime is developed in early years. There is very little we can do to change the context, but it's the response of the individual to their backgrounds – a willingness to overcome – that distinguishes the recovered offender from the criminal."

If, as Lesley-Ann van Selm says, a social entrepreneur "is someone who recognises a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principals to organise, create, and manage a venture that addresses this problem,", she is a deserved recipient of the Pinnacle Award.

Van Selm is a social entrepreneur in the truest sense of the term, and the turning of her innovative talents to the creation and development of Khulisa show how her drive, compassion and insight have come together to create an organisation that is making radical changes on the South African criminal justice landscape.

"We all have the power to make positive change. The question we should all be asking ourselves, is not 'how can I help?' but 'how can I not?'"

In 2007 Khulisa's Justice and Restoration Project won the "Extra Mile" award from the KwaZulu Natal Department of Justice, and was declared a Best Practice Model. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime cited Khulisa's 'Make It Better' programme as a Best Practice model in 2006.

Making a difference, says van Selm, is within everyone's realm of possibility.

"I am just a woman who saw the need for a solution, who had the fortunate opportunity to turn my own skills to the development of a project that is starting to have far-reaching implications.

There is a social entrepreneur in all of us. We all have the power to make positive change. The question we should all be asking ourselves, is not 'how can I help?' but 'how can I not?'"