MOKOPANE – During National Child Protection Week (CPW) we get a chance to make people aware of the vulnerability of children and the country’s Constitution which provides for the protection of children’s rights.
Child Protection Week started last Sunday and government and civil society is using this week to pay attention to the difficult issues the youth faces. This year CPW is commemorated under the theme “Let Us All Protect Children to Move South Africa Forward”.
The responsibility to protect children not only rests with the government, but also with every citizen. Adults should set an example, they should believe and listen to their children. They should make sure children know their rights and understand their responsibilities, says Prof Antoinette Lombaard, Head of the Department of Social Work and Criminology at the University of Pretoria.
“We cannot say children’s rights are a priority in South Africa as whipping as a punishment method is still used, children have to leave school because of poverty, drug abuse that damage their health and impede their education, and the most important people in their lives – parents, caregivers, teachers and leaders – violate their rights.
“The problems in schools such as students who hurt or kill each other, teachers who exploit learners sexually, drug and emotional abuse by bullying, sexual harassment and pornography are all symptoms of the society that adults helped create.
“Children are not born aggressive or rebellious. Their ways of dealing with differences and conflicts are shaped by the environments to which they are exposed. This places a great responsibility on adults to protect the rights of children.”
Lombaard points out that poverty is at the heart of children’s vulnerability as it has an impact on the socio-economic environment in which people live. Poverty leads to the continuation of social ills such as violence and drug abuse found in many South African communities. Violence, she says, destroys children’s future and creates an unsafe and uncertain environment for them.
Eulogia de Wet, a social worker from the Mokopane Noodforum, says abuse is often reported to social workers after children have already been traumatised emotionally or physically. The protection of children is every adult’s responsibility.
Note the following signs of abuse:
• Physical abuse: Unexplained bruises probably caused by hard blows. This could include the burning of a child with cigarette butts or other objects.
Excessive, uncontrolled and inappropriate physical punishment of a child for a minor offense.
• Serious physical neglect:
Children not taken for medical treatment and not protected from the elements of nature. A child left in the cold, or who does not have the right clothing for the weather conditions.
When a child does not get nutritious food.
• Sexual abuse or exposure:
Exposure to pornography or the use of children in making pornography.
Exposure to the sexual activities of adults.
Sexual abuse of a child by a parent or family member, or allowing sexual abuse of a child by another person.
• Emotional abuse of children:
Verbal abuse (the child is berated, emotionally degraded, self-esteem is broken).
Persistent threats that the parent is leaving the child.
• Exposure to domestic violence:
Even just the observation of domestic violence against his mother or from both parents has an emotionally devastating effect on a child.
What can you do to protect children from abuse?
Pay attention to children in your area who may live very isolated.
Look for infants or young children crying incessantly.
Be careful if children are constantly being left home alone for long hours.
Pay attention to children who are constantly very scared or who look frightened.
Be focused on children who are not dressed appropriately – thin summer clothes in the winter or a thick sweater in the summer which might conceal signs of physical abuse.
Be involved in your children’s circle of friends and look out for inappropriate sexual behavior or talks.
If you suspect that a child may be exposed to abuse, contact the Mokopane Noodforum situated in Thabo Mbeki Street or the Mokopane police station. Both have the power to remove a child from a dangerous situation or environment.
