Cape Town - Child-focused and community-based organisations are rallying behind initiatives and projects centred on the protection of vulnerable children in local communities to mark National Child Protection Week (NCW), which officially began on Sunday.
The newly elected Grassy Park Youth Desk Crime Prevention Unit launched one of its biggest projects, in line with NCW and in an effort to highlight the importance of communities actively working together to safeguard children.
Over the weekend, the youth-run unit successfully launched a child fingerprint and documentation drive in Ottery.
The Desk’s deputy chairperson, Saadiqah Ganief, said the youth desk, in partnership with the Grassy Park police, the Community Police Forum and neighbourhood watch groups, has been aiming to raise awareness about the importance of coming together as a community to look out for vulnerable young people.
“We wanted to create awareness about missing persons, especially children, and also support our residents by assisting them to document some of the most vital information about their children
“We facilitated the capturing of children’s fingerprints, and parents were able to bring their children along with a document that had vital information regarding their child. We thought of doing this as a preventative measure in case of emergencies, and we’re looking forward to following-up events in different communities served by the Grassy Park policing precinct,” said Ganief.
Meanwhile, to mark the start of child protection week, the Western Cape Children’s Commissioner, Christina Nomdo, said she believed child protection begins at home.
Nomdo said as the country observed the week, communities, parents and guardians needed to reflect on whether they were doing enough to prevent violence against children in every setting.
She said: “Parents are charged with being the first protectors of their children. In a recent presentation on the children’s amendment bill, the child government monitors in my office called for more support from the government to ensure all children have ‘good parents’. We need action on every level, from everyone in society, if we want to change pervasive violence.”
1/2 Our WC Commissioner of Children, @NomdoChristina, has joined in the call to take 6 minutes of your time to register the 60+. For more info on how we will be ramping up our vaccinations, read here: https://t.co/bsOvsUHzAv #LetsDoThis pic.twitter.com/jcrt47rxbQ
— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) May 27, 2021
Provincial Child Monitor Zubair Ryklief said personally he felt the country needed to observe and recognise child protection week for a longer period.
“I don't agree with having a week that focuses on the protection of children. The focus on child protection will be everywhere for this week, but then it will just go back to how it normally is. We are speaking confronting this with a united front, and we need to wholly follow through. No more one-hit-wonder events,” said Ryklief.