Single Moms Raising Sons (“SMRS”, “we”, “us”, “our”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect through singlemomsraisingsons.org, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and the rights you have over it under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”).

1. Information We Collect

We only collect what a specific form or feature actually asks you for. Depending on how you interact with the site, this may include:

• Contact, story-sharing, volunteer, comment and complaint forms: your name, email address and/or phone number, and whatever message you write.
• Family profile registration (Moms): full name, surname, phone number, email address, a password (stored securely, never in plain text), marital status, church affiliation, country, province, city, number of children, number of sons, and each son’s name and age. This creates a real account so you can log back in.
• Sons Camp and Men Around The Fire registration: parent/guardian or attendee name, email, phone number, preferred location, and (for Sons Camp) your son’s name and age.
• Facilitator applications and Church partnership registration: collected via a linked external Google Form while that feature is active – Google’s own privacy policy governs information submitted there.
• Donations: your name and email address, plus the amount and campaign you’re giving to. Card, EFT and wallet details are entered directly on PayFast’s own secure payment page – we never see or store your payment details ourselves.
• Standard technical data: basic server logs (such as IP address and browser type) collected automatically by our hosting infrastructure, the same way most websites do.

2. Information About Children

Where a son’s name and age appear in a mom’s family profile or a camp registration, that information is provided by the parent or guardian – never collected directly from a child online. We use it solely to match sons to age-appropriate programmes and to coordinate camp logistics. In-person participation in a camp additionally requires a separate signed indemnity/consent form from a parent or guardian, collected outside this website.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use personal information to: deliver and administer our programmes; process and confirm donations; respond to enquiries, applications and stories shared with us; manage accounts; match sons to eligible programmes; send communications relevant to a programme, event or donation you’ve engaged with (including via WhatsApp, where you’ve messaged us there); and meet our legal and Public Benefit Organisation record-keeping obligations.

4. Who We Share Information With

We do not sell personal information. We share it only where necessary to operate the services above:

• PayFast – our payment processor, to process donations.
• Google Forms – for facilitator applications and church partner registration, while those features route through an external form.
• Amplify Giving – the external platform we currently direct USA-based donors to, governed by Amplify Giving’s own privacy policy once you’re on their site.
• WhatsApp – only for messages you choose to send us directly through a WhatsApp link.
• Our website hosting and account-management infrastructure, which stores the data described above securely on our behalf.

5. International Donors

PayFast’s multi-currency processing lets international donors give in their own currency; this may involve your payment being processed across borders by PayFast’s own payment partners. USA-based donors using the Amplify Giving link are transacting directly with Amplify Giving under US law, not with SMRS’s PayFast integration.

6. Data Security

Account passwords are stored using standard secure hashing, not in plain text, and the site is served over HTTPS. Access to personal information is limited to SMRS staff and administrators who need it to do their work.

7. How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep personal information only for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, or as long as we’re required to by law or our obligations as a registered Public Benefit Organisation.

8. Your Rights Under POPIA

You have the right to ask us what personal information we hold about you, to request that we correct or delete it, to object to or withdraw consent for certain processing, and to lodge a complaint with South Africa’s Information Regulator if you believe we’ve handled your information unlawfully. To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below.

9. Cookies

Beyond the basic cookies WordPress itself uses for core functionality (such as keeping you logged in to your account), this site does not currently use tracking, analytics or advertising cookies. This section will be updated if that changes.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top will always reflect the most recent version.

11. Contact Us

Questions about this policy or your personal information can be sent to info@singlemomsraisingsons.org.