About Us
Community Based Organisations differ markedly from province to province in their availability, services and structure. South Africa has 11 official languages. The home languages spoken by children differ across the provinces and when children are in need or crisis, it is essential that children are responded to in their own language.
The Childline toll free number receives approximately 55,000 calls per month across all the provinces. It is essential to avoid a situation where a call centre is so busy that children do not receive the quality attention that is required. Each regional office, apart from the Crisis Line, Prevention and Education Services, offers a different \\\\'Basket\\\\' of services according to regional need and the availability of resources both human and material, to provide such services.
The crisis line serves the entire country, even the provinces in which there is no regional office. Childline South Africa plans to develop a branch in the Northern Cape Province.
Achievements
- Childline South Africa is an affiliation of regional Childlines. Each Province in South Africa with the exception of Northern Cape has a regional Childline office to which the toll free line for children is directed
- Each province has its own regional issues relating to children and violations of children\\\\'s rights
- Education, Welfare and Health - the government services that have a profound impact on children\\\\'s lives - are provincial affairs and therefore services and problems within these structures differ from province to province
- The Non-Government Organisations, Faith Based Organisations and - 600,000 calls managed on the crisis line
- 500,000 Children exposed to child rights and child protection education through talks and media
- 4,000 Abused children received free therapy services
- 1,500 Children prepared for testifying in court
- Research into infant and preschool child sexual assault
- Research into adolescent and child on child sexual offending
- 130 Adult offenders placed in rehabilitation programmes
- 82 Child sex offenders placed rehabilitation programmes
- Numerous children placed in safe care
- Numerous children living in poverty linked to essential resources
- The development of posters and educational materials on child protection
Formal Affiliations
The National Office is a member of the National Child Protection Committee, the South African Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
The purpose of membership in all these structures is to establish co-operative responses to child protection, cooperative training for child protection workers. Childline also works within the network of Child Welfare Societies across the country, without which our services in child protection would not function adequately.
Goals and Objectives
- Provide a coordinating structure for all its provincial affiliates through the support of its affiliates, protect children from all kinds of violence and to create a culture of children\\\\'s rights within South Africa
- Provide a twenty-four hour emergency toll free telephonic counselling and referral service for all children who are in danger or distress
- Advise, counsel and assist parents who are experiencing difficulty with their children or who fear that they or others may abuse their children
- Give concerned members of the public the opportunity to discuss cases of suspected child abuse
- Make therapy available to persons or groups as may be deemed necessary or advisable, more particularly but not exclusively, in order to prevent child abuse, ameliorate its effects in so far as may be possible, reduce the chance of its recurrence and to enhance family functioning
- Ensure effective and efficient co-ordination of all such treatment at the level of the family and at the inter-professional levels
- Assess the suitability for treatment of all persons referred to Childline
- Act as a referral source for professionals, such as medical doctors, teachers, social workers and psychologists, who seek guidance in dealing with cases of actual or suspected child abuse
- Provide training in treatment methods and skills to such professionals
- Select and train volunteers in telephone counselling skills and supportive functions
- Contribute, whether by research or otherwise, to the body of empirical knowledge on issues relating to prevention and treatment in the field of child abuse
- Establish a resource library and data bank
- Advocate and propagate children\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s rights
- Perform research into the causes and effects of violence against children
- Participate in policy development with the National Government
- Government institutions, provincial and local governments and other organisations operating in the fields of interest of Childline
