Three Springs residents and their groups have teamed up against the scourge of child abuse in this city and country.
Andries Ferreira of Mad Rage Against Child Abuse, says he and Henry Harber and Barries Barnard have joined forces and resources to help children live normal lives.
Harber and his biker friends in several biking groups, call themselves Wild Wild Guardians and Barnard of the Clydesdale Community Policing Forum (CPF) is also vice chairman of the Pink Ladies, the countrywide missing people’s search organisation.
All of them were involved in helping abused children before they started working together.
The group is linked to several churches and individuals in Springs who do counselling with traumatised and abused children.
They dream of and work towards having a city where children are safe, where they can walk without fear on the streets or into their homes.
“Children are our country’s future and we want a healthy next generation of people,” say the group.
This group emphasises they are not law enforcers, but aim to help the three welfare organisations in Springs dealing with children, as well as the police’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit (FCS) to get information.
They also work closely with the Sexual Assault Clinic in Benoni.
Ferreira explains Mad Rage is an organisation that creates awareness about child abuse, mainly through its Facebook page, which is connected with groups in England, America, Malaysia, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.
They have also established a sister organisation in the UK, with America and Australia to follow soon.
The group also gets information on child abuse through the Mad Rage’s call centre on 082 424 8654 or the inbox on this organisation’s Facebook page.
This Facebook page gets between 7 000 and 8 000 hits a week from people around the country and world.
Ferreira says this is, many times, the first place where a child’s abuse is reported.
Mad Rage also has awareness days twice a year, with the next event planned for September 27 at Springs Old Boys’ Club.
Ferreira says Harber and the Wild Wild Guardians are doing the “field work” part and do investigations when Mad Rage gets a lead.
They don’t get involved in domestic violence, but will only help children who need intervention.
The group reminds residents to use the police’s 24-hour help line 10111 for cases like domestic violence.
Harber says substance abuse abounds in most of the complaints the group attends to, and is often the reason why children are neglected and sometimes run away from home.
Ferreira, Harber and Barnard call child abuse and neglect the “silent crime” because it takes place behind the closed doors of a home where no-one can see what happens to the children.
“Many people in our community,” according to the three, “turn a blind eye towards child abuse and especially child sexual abuse.
“People who know about child sexual abuse may be arrested and prosecuted for conspiracy,” say the men.
According to Ferreira and Harber, all children must be informed that their teachers are also guardians, where they can report sexual and physical abuse and if being neglected.
It is the duty of these guardians, according to law, to report the abuse of a child.
The three men are especially worried about the abuse of smaller children who are too young to go to school or to see strangers that can report their abuse.
The men, as well as the authorities, rely on the community or neighbours or family members for information on these children’s abuse.
The schools, according to the three, also have to be more vigilant about children missing or leaving school, as well as the physical and emotional state of mind in which children are going to school.
“Believe a child when he tells you about abuse, because it takes guts for the child to tell that to you,” say the three men.
Ferreira and Harber feel a house of safety has to be established in Springs to effectively help children in need, because they feel there is not adequate housing for children who have to be removed from their homes.
