Women and children who have been through the ordeal of being raped, often have to wait in cold, impersonal police stations to make statements when they report crimes. The organisation Matla a Bana has stepped in and started establishing child-friendly reporting facilities at police stations, courts and hospitals. This room in Modimolle is the first of its kind in Limpopo.
Matla a Bana was established in 2001 by Monique Strydom after she was kept hostage for four months by Al Qaeda terrorists in the Philippines. On the morning of her release, she vowed to help others in need.
The organisation not only creates childfriendly rooms to make reporting crime easier, but also provide victims with comfort packs relevant to their age. They are also training police officers and medical practitioners to assist child victims more effectively.
The room, which is divided in two units, is also equipped with a video camera in order to record a child’s rendition of the events to be used in court.
The police welcomed the opening of the child-friendly room with open arms and hailed Matla a Bana for their community work during the opening of the centre on Thursday 5 September.
The national head for FCS, Maj. Genl. Bafana Linda, expressed his sadness at the recent countrywide spate of crimes against women and children. “Policing crime against women and children is daunting work as it happens behind closed doors and in dark alleys. It is often someone they know who betrays their trust,” he said. “Do not be discouraged — good work is being done. FCS holds the flag when it comes to life sentences. We have had an impressive record since our inception in 2010 and have recently been asked to present our statistics in parliament,” he said.
He continued that Matla a Bana’s support of the police officers is invaluable. “Someone must look after the wellbeing of the investigators — they are not Robocops, they too suffer burn out from doing this traumatic work,” he said.
Acting provincial commissioner Maj. Genl. Samuel Manala said the training received from Matla a Bana is important as the investigators must have advanced skills to apprehend criminals.
“We must keep up with them,” he said.
