Guardian angel protecting Amanzimtoti children
It was a privilege to collaborate with local service providers who aim to strengthen families.
With Child Protection Week celebrated last week, Estelle van Eeden, 30, has been working hard behind the scenes with her organisation.
Sparrow Trust was founded in Toti in 2018, and has since become an official member of the National Freedom Network for the counter-human trafficking community. “I started it the day I held an abandoned child in my arms and realised that he was the ‘perfect victim’. He could vanish without a trace and no-one would notice.”
For the past decade she has worked in several non-profit organisations in South Africa and internationally. Many of these countries were ranked as high risk for exploitation or were on the trafficking in persons report watchlist.
“Because of the country profiles, especially for their history of exploiting children for prostitution and in the context of the travel and tourism industry, human trafficking became real to me. Based on what I had witnessed first-hand, I wanted to be more than a concerned citizen and needed to become an abolitionist.”
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The trust focusses on Toti, but also presents its trafficking prevention and child safety workshops in the greater Durban area when invited. “Our primary focus is the prevention programme to combat exploitation through our workshops which we present in schools with community policing forum members and SAPS representatives. Our team also partners with schools and groups to implement the protective behaviours curriculum, an abuse-proofing initiative. We also use the Freedom Generation School for Superheroes anti-trafficking comic book.”
Its secondary focus is an emotional development programme, which aims to give child victims and high-risk children access to professional trauma counselling, life coaching, and the life heroes’ emotional development and life skills programme.”
Estelle was born in Gauteng, raised on the North Coast and spent most of her adolescence and early adulthood living and working in Asia. “Due to my nomadic life, I was privileged to be home-schooled, leaving enough time to engage in social justice projects and exploring new cultures.” She is a maritime enthusiast and enjoys exploring nature. “They say art and gardening are forms of therapy, so in my line of work, these are definitely top priorities. I also read at least one book a week.”
The lockdown limitations created a wonderful opportunity for the trust to get creative with its programmes. “Firstly, we were able to move one of our protective behaviours workshops online and work with parents to empower their families. Specifically aimed at addressing the crimes perpetrated against children in our community, we released weekly articles on social media to bring home the reality of child exploitation and trafficking in South Africa.
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“Unfamiliarity, facing strangers and new places are often extremely hard for victims after a traumatic event or when working through a crisis. This led our team to collaborate with several local child-centered service providers to do it in person, do live social media interviews to familiarise the community with the organisations, and virtually introducing them to the people who may be assisting them.”
She said it was a privilege to collaborate with local service providers who aim to strengthen families and believe that they can build a safer, cohesive and more resilient community. Estelle was welcomed by Choices for Life, Amanzimtoti’s pregnancy resource centre as well as Kingsburgh Child and Family Welfare. “We then visited a real child’s ‘play haven’, which is the home of life heroes and Healing Hearts Through Play, which focus on emotional and life skills development through life coaching. We also enjoyed visiting Uniquely Me, which specialises in DIR floortime therapy.
At N van Wyk Professional Counselling Services, we spoke to their counsellor about the protective behaviours programme. It was also an honour to virtually take viewers to the police station to discuss the victim empowerment service and the procedures of reporting crimes committed against children.” The series ended off discussing the various counter-human trafficking initiatives of the Isipingo, Athlone Park and Toti community policing forums.
The public can assist by donating pre-loved clothing and linen, as well as grocery vouchers to the trust’s Winter Warmers Project by emailing hope@sparrowtrust.co.za or WhatsApp on 082-263-9710.
What should every parent or carer know when it comes to protecting children?
Estelle said the most important weapon in the fight to protect children is preserving a cohesive family unit, fostering trust and open communication, ensuring that children know they are loved unconditionally, and most importantly, being absolutely present in the child’s life. “Make sure your child has a network of trusted adults whom they know they can talk to about anything. This is crucial for the occasion where the abuse is happening in a family context. Children rarely ‘make-up’ sexual abuse disclosures, so treat them with respect and take them seriously. Though this is culturally-complicated, we strongly urge parents to teach children the anatomically correct names for all body parts, as this leaves no room for ambiguity should an incident be disclosed.”
What should you do if you suspect a child is being abused?
The Children’s Act places a responsibility on every citizen who believes a child is being abused, be it verbally, emotionally, physically, or through neglect, to report it to a social worker, designated child protection organisation or the nearest police station.
“A person who fails to do so, becomes guilty of an offence themselves. A parent or guardian who becomes aware of sexual misconduct by a teacher should report the matter directly to the school principal, who should then follow protocols to address the matter. However, the parent or guardian should then proceed to report this to a police official, bearing in mind the SAPS’ victim empowerment service provides a private and non-threatening environment in which to do so.”
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