* This story was updated on 27 May 2015.
Cape Town - As country celebrates Child Protection Week, the search for missing Shasha-Lee November from Hanover Park continues.
While Child Protection Week is celebrated every year to raise awareness of the rights of children as expressed in the Children’s Act of 2005, the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children has raised concerns about the increasing levels of violence against children.
The centre’s Shaheema McLeod said despite awareness campaigns, the centre had knowledge of at least three children that had gone missing over the past two weeks.
Provincial police spokeswoman Constable Noloyiso Rwexana confirmed that 11 children from across the Western Cape were reported missing between April and this month.
And while some of the children were found, the search for Shasha-Lee, who went missing from her Groenal Walk home in Hanover Park on May 3, was ongoing.
McLeod said the centre had launched an anonymous postcard campaign aimed at exploring the rationale behind domestic violence.
The campaign, named “I Deserve it”, tasked 600 Grade 10 pupils to motivate their circumstances which warranted domestic violence.
According to the centre, one out of four children were abused daily and it had been estimated that a child went missing every five hours.
“Our findings revealed that regardless of the community and the school, the learner responses very much depended on the environment in which the child had been raised in,” she said.
“The system is broken and sadly children, our most vulnerable members of society, are easy targets for predators.”
The centre’s counsellor, Zeenat Osman, said children were not only affected when they were victims of violence, but exposure to violence towards the mother, for example, could be “seriously” damaging to their psyche.
Osman said: “Children who have witnessed domestic violence may experience a variety of emotions ranging from guilt to helplessness, which in turn can lead to behavioural problems or social difficulties. The postcard campaign was very insightful in this regard. It provided an opportunity to explore the ramifications of violence through an anonymous platform.”
As part of the department of social development, MEC Albert Fritz conducted a door-to-door campaign in Mitchells Plain to raise awareness for the protection of children this month.
Fritz said, guided by the Children’s Act No 30 of 2005, the department would continue to play a leading role in ensuring the province fostered an enabling and nurturing environment for children.
“In this regard we have allocated R605 549 000 - the second-largest portion of our 2015/16 budget - to the Children and Families Programme,” said Fritz.
He said as they observed International Missing Children’s Day and Child Protection Month, they continued to urge the public to report any cases of child abandonment, neglect and missing children to any of their regional offices, or to contact the department’s hotline on 0800 220 250.
Cape Argus