Spotlight on children’s rights during pandemic
NOORDWYK – Lend your support to the Yenzani Children's Home during the lockdown.
The end of May marks the start of Child Protection Week, which aims to shine a spotlight on the suffering of children and raise awareness about their rights.
This year, Child Protection Week was hosted from 31 May to 7 June. The Department of Social Development announced that this year, the theme of the week is ‘Let us all protect children during Covid-19 and beyond’.
For the founder of the Yenzani Children’s Home, Sanne Mirk, the week is used as an opportunity to engage with the youngsters who reside at the home about their rights. The Covid-19 pandemic has also had a devastating impact on poor and marginalised communities.
Mirk said that because of the pandemic, children are seeing families shattered by a loss of income, sickness and death and there are millions of children who are homeless and without families to provide the very basics of life. She said that within the first week of April, Yenzani, which is based in Noordwyk, was asked to shelter 10 more children due to the outbreak.
“We were unable to help for lack of space; we provided the details of other facilities and felt helpless and brokenhearted. By this time, most funding had been diverted to the fight against Covid-19, with child protection and other causes waiting in line.”
Mirk said that they were blessed to have three caregivers go into lockdown with the home’s 40 children. She said that while it has been incredibly tough, she feels blessed that caregivers Jacob Mphiwe, Gladys Leballo and Connie Mosetla, have been amazing with the children.
During this period, the caregivers cooked, cleaned and helped teach the youngsters. “We have been so lucky that we have been able to keep up morale.”
She highlighted that Child Protection Week doesn’t get as much attention as other events, such as Mandela Day, however, they use the time to create age-appropriate discussions with the youngsters.Mirk highlighted that there is still a pressing need for certain items as winter approaches.
These include:
- The flu jab for 20 people
- Food, cleaning products and toiletries
- Supermarket vouchers? Medicine and personal protective equipment
- Financial support
- Winter clothing or clothing store vouchers
- Repairs to a Defy hob and oven? 18kg top loader washing machine
- 15 black armless study chairs
