Caroline Peters
African feminist, seasoned social justice advocate and community leader with over three decades on the frontlines of the gender-based violence response.
Leading nationwide initiatives that engage men and boys as proactive allies in eliminating GBV.
Caroline Peters is the Founder and Executive Director of the Callas Foundation and one of South Africa's most respected voices on gender-based violence. Her career has spanned crisis rooms, community halls, magistrates' courts and the highest chambers of legislative reform.
Early Advocacy
Caroline began her journey in the early 1990s as a rape crisis volunteer, sitting through the long nights and longer aftermaths beside survivors nobody else knew how to help. In 1999 she started working at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children in Manenberg from the year it was founded, and has since been active with Ilitha Labantu — the first women and children's centre founded in a township — and the 1000 Women Trust, an initiative supporting women and children's organisations across the country.
In 2014 Caroline made history as the first woman to start a running club in Cape Town, bringing a source of hope and physical freedom to women in a working-class neighbourhood with few support structures of its own.
Legislative Impact
Her grassroots expertise has informed national law. Caroline has given input at Parliament on gender-based violence legislation, and has trained magistrates, clinic staff and community leaders on sensitivity toward survivors of sexual violence — contributing to national conversations around the Domestic Violence Act and the Sexual Offences Bill.
National & Provincial Roles
Beyond Callas, Caroline coordinates the Cape Flats Women's Movement and serves as Provincial Coordinator for South African Women in Dialogue. She works closely with the Women's Legal Centre and the Human Rights Defenders Programme, and coordinates a UNODC-backed programme on non-custodial measures for women in conflict with the law. In 2025 she was named a finalist in the Santam Women of the Future Awards, in the Social Entrepreneur category.
Community Leadership
In 2018 Caroline formally registered the Callas Foundation, translating three decades of relationships across the Cape Flats into an organisation that now serves 500+ meals a day, supports over 1,200 cases a year, and trains community responders across nine suburbs.