Some of the directors and volunteers at the Sonneblom Foundation have been working with the ADSP since early 2023 in an unofficial capacity. Our collaboration became official in May 2025 when our NPC was registered.
The AD Suicide Prevention Program is an initiative set up to support 12-18-year-old adolescents in South Africa in crisis. This legacy work, in honour of Angie Diedericks, who sadly took her own life on 1st April 2023, provides 24/7 free online crisis intervention and counselling services for those in desperate need. The team, headed up by Ingrid Temmerman, recently expanded to include bereavement counselling for families who have lost a child to suicide. In 2024, South Africa reported that its suicide rate was 23.5 per 100,000, which translates to about 14,000 deaths from suicide a year. It is the second leading cause of death amongst young people aged 15-29 (Medical Schemes, South Africa, 2024), so accessing adolescents early is vital. Access to mental health services in South Africa is challenging, and depending on where the youngster is located geographically, sometimes impossible.
Our service aims to plug the gap to support children who would not have access to vital suicide prevention crisis services. Since its inception, the service has supported 600+ children and their families, and we are proud of the work we do. Our plans for 2025/26 include further raising awareness by revisiting schools, hosting service talks, and even taking simple steps, such as encouraging parents to save the service’s number on their children’s mobile phones. We hope to double up on our engagement this year and are on our way to achieving this. In a world where we can be anything, we believe in being kind, and when in crisis, please take a moment to refocus and say ‘This Too Shall Pass’
Visit angie.org.za for direct WhatsApp links to counsellors, or email help@angie.org.za