Nokuphila Community Services held an awareness campaign against child abuse

Kwa-Thema – Holding placards, learners from various schools in Kwa-Thema took to the streets to raise awareness on issues affecting children.
The campaign was part of a child protection awareness campaign led by NPO, Nokuphila Community Services, on June 30.
The project manager at the NPO, Dipuo Ndlovu, said the march was informed by the ongoing violence against children.

“Children are the most vulnerable members of society. As such, they ought to be safe and should feel free to be children without fear that something might happen to them.
“We want to create that environment within the community.
“An environment where a child is heard and they can freely express themselves.
“The campaign is mainly to advocate for our children’s rights,” explained Ndlovu.

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With the recent statistics indicating an increase in atrocious crimes committed against children, the organisation said they are seeing a rise in child neglect cases.
“Parents are leaving children to parent themselves.
“You’ll find an eight-year-old left with a four-year-old while the parents have gone out to have fun.
“In some instances, the parents would be gone for the entire weekend,” emphasised Ndlovu.

For such cases, they work with social workers who intervene and schools also refer learners to be registered on their database.
They work closely with the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Health and police services.

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Their drop-in centre caters for more than 300 children between the ages of seven and 17, mostly vulnerable children.
The aftercare programme runs from 14:00 to 17:00, weekly.
For enquiries or to make contributions to the centre, they may be contacted on 011 818 1585.

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