Villa Liza community schooled on social work, fire prevention

"Child Welfare is here to protect children from unpleasant circumstances not to break the relationship of parents and child."

August 24, 2023

Buhle Langimani 2 minutes read

Seen here are Vincent Khoza, Nompumelelo Gidela, Lantitia Lephalala, Grammah Mlangeni, Tumelo Tebele and Deffney Mashao.

The Boksburg Child Welfare and various stakeholders hosted a child protection and fire awareness campaign at Kuyasa Care Centre, Villa Liza, on August 18.

The campaign was focused on social workers and their work with children in the community, as well as what families should do in the event of a house fire.

Nompumelelo Gidela, director of Boksburg Child Welfare, told the community they are here to protect children from unpleasant circumstances, not to break up the relationship between parents and children.

Vincent Khoza from DEMS was telling the resident on how to extinguish a fire.

“I ask the community not to fight with social workers when a reported matter is not immediately attended to. We have to first investigate underlying issues and try to find parents help before simply removing a child,” she said.

“It is not an easy thing to remove a child from their parents. It causes trauma. We don’t want to deprive children of their parents’ love because every child deserves this.”

She also told the community that social workers will be stationed in Villa Liza on Thursday from 08:00 to 16:00, and should the demand dictate, on more days of the week.

Nompumelelo Gidela Director of child welfare speaks to the community of Villa Liza about the procedure they have to follow as social workers.

Hlamalani Chauke, a nurse at Villa Liza Clinic, taught residents CPR, first aid and how to deal with burn wounds.

“If you get burned by a hot liquid you must run cold water on the burn for about 30 minutes. When performing CPR, you must make sure that you check the patient has no obstructions in their mouth and check for a pulse first,” she said.

Vincent Khoza, from Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services, shared the emergency numbers and showed residents how to extinguish an oil fire, as well as encouraged them to buy a fire extinguisher.

The community of Villa Liza attended the campaign and were listening to the informative speeches.

“Each household should have a full bucket of water on hand when you go to bed so that if a fire breaks out you are able to help. In informal settlements, there are very few taps or a large number of households share a tap,” said Khoza.

He concluded that oil fire must be extinguished with sand and not water. Families must also have an evacuation plan.

Anyone interested in training in fire safety and protection can do so through Khoza and they will receive a certificate of attendance (the training doesn’t guarantee anyone a job but it’s a very important life skill).