TO address child neglect and give women hope, Pinetown Highway Child and Family Welfare Society recently hosted Women’s Day celebrations for the Embo community.
Social auxiliary worker, Teressa Hadebe, said they wanted to encourage women to do better no matter what their current circumstances were which was the reason they involved police, Legal Aid SA and the Jes Foord Foundation to be part of the day and address the guests.
“The cases that we deal mostly with in this area are of child neglect and so we work mainly with the mothers, some of whom are in abusive relationships.”
She said most of the people in the community are poor and other parents have passed away due to HIV and AIDS. In most cases, the grannies are left behind to look after these children.
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“There are those cases where a mother is still young and focuses more on the good life than on her child/children. We have been called in many instances to intervene in cases where a child is locked inside the house and the mom is nowhere to be found.”
Hadebe said in cases like that, police are the ones who respond.
“Police have the right to break the door, they then take the child to a safe home and we take it from there. We also council those parents to grow up and take responsibility.
“These women needs to know that we love them and we want them to lead a better life, just because we take away their children does not mean that we are fighting with them but we want what’s best for the children,” she said.
The women were entertained with music and were served food. The Shoprite Checkers mobile soup kitchen treated the community to soup and bread.
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