National Child Protection Week (CPW) is observed annually, with the goal of raising awareness of the rights of children as articulated in the Children's Act of 2005.
This year, it takes place from 2 - 9 June, with the theme “Let us Protect All Children to Move South Africa Forward”.
SOS Children’s Villages South Africa calls for continued and focused efforts to observe protect and promote the rights of all children.
Children have a right to feel secure in their homes, environments, and places outside of their immediate environment. They need to move freely without fear of attack or abuse, and it is the responsibility of parents, duty bearers and the wider community to provide such safe environments.
Children should have safe toys, resources and materials needed for their holistic development. This also includes caring relationships with others, which contribute to making them feel confident and able to reach their full potential. They should receive effective protection from physical and mental abuse, neglect, and all forms of exploitation.
“At SOS Children’s Villages we offer secure and loving care in a family setting, to children who have lost the care of their parents or cannot live with their biological family. It is our responsibility as an organisation to uphold and ensure our children are protected. We have Child Protection Policies and systems in place to ensure that we are able to protect children. This is how we ensure that our daily operations and our programmes for the children and youth do no harm the children in our care. Child Protection is central to everything that we do,” says Mosa Moremi, National Children’s Rights and Advocacy Officer at SOS Children’s Villages South Africa.
As an organisation that works with children, SOS Children’s Villages has established policies that uphold the rights of the child. These policies outline behaviours and actions that are unacceptable, they provide guidelines on procedures to be followed, and reporting structures with trained and accredited Child Safeguarding investigators, whose work has resulted in an improved quality of care and improved safety for children in its care.