A non-profit organisation (NPO) based in Lavender Hill hosted a march to honour Youth Month and raise awareness about the safety and well-being of local youth.
The NPO New World Foundation, in collaboration with other community stakeholders, hosted a child-protection event on Thursday 5 June.
The initiative brought local primary schools Zerelda Park, Hillwood, Levana and Prince George and community-based service providers New World Foundation (NWF), Rise Above Development (RAD), Steenberg Community Policing Forum (CPF) and Childline together.
Driven by the NWF Drop-in Centre, it provided an opportunity for children and youth to amplify their safety concerns and how vulnerable they felt living in a context punctuated by violence and fear.
The National Child Protection commemorative week, themed “Working together in ending violence against children”, was a fitting platform for children to take centre stage and, through their poetry, dance and drummies, voice their concerns, supported by stakeholders, parents, carers and other members of the community.
Schools and organisations serve as sanctuaries in an unsafe context. With ever-growing safety concerns children fear going to and from school. They and their caregivers often cannot access services because of the unpredictable nature of crime and violence, risking being caught in crossfire, leaving them in a constant state of trauma.
This constitutes a direct violation of a child’s right to access spaces for education and safety, and ultimately has a poor educational outcome for the community. In the context of heightened community-wide trauma, violence in the home, bullying and other forms of abuse become normalised.
On the day of the event children’s voices and those of the community were heard, with such slogans as “Jou kind is my kind”, “Children matter”, “Keep our children safe from harm” and “No more silence, stop the violence” expressed.
The children handed a memorandum to government, calling on provincial and local government to hear their plight and take action.
It was received by Western Cape Minister of Social Development Jaco Londt and Steenberg Police Station Commander Lt-Col Delmore Manuel.
