Justice learns of children Challenges during 2017 Child Protection Week Closure
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development North West Region rolled up sleeves as they visited the length and breadth of Ratlou Local Municipality to commemorate 2017 Child Protection Week. The week long campaign that started on Friday May 26 came to an end on June 2, 2017 at Setlagole Village.
The outreach came as result of public outcry that reported teen pregnancy and social decay at Ratlou Local Municipality. The Department of Justice together with Ratlou Local Municipality, Department of Social Development, South African Social Security Agency and South African Human Rights Commission visited various wards within the local municipality.
The team conducted dialogues, education and awareness sessions with broad scope of audience in learners, parents, destitute families and general community members. At the forefront of the interactions was to afford audience an opportunity to raise their challenges and collectively come up with what can be a befitting solution.
Challenges raised by children were issues of child neglect, poverty, lack of recreational activities and unemployment parents. Among other issues raised by children were misuse of child support grants, cards gambling and alcohol abuse.
On the other hand, parents raised a concern of children who want to bully them and unreasonable on their demands. “They force us to buy them designer labels and forget that there are other responsibilities such as taking care of their school and wellbeing needs.
I am grateful of the efforts made by the Department of Justice and other stakeholders by holding community sessions with us. We wish that this exercise can be continuous” said Mavis Moloko.
“The department conducts education and awareness campaigns on regular base to reach out to various communities across North West Region. We don’t only honour and commemorate calendar events activities, we constantly visit various parts of the province to address societal challenges such as domestic violence, substance abuse, trafficking in person and many other related services offered by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development”, said Tsietsi Malema Regional Head for DOJ&CD.
The Department of Social Development together with its agency SASSA, encouraged community members to register their children with the Department of Home Affairs immediately after birth so that they can receive birth certificates, as this will assist in ensuring that they benefit from the child support grant especially where there is a need.
Community members were further encouraged to report any form of child abuse such physical, emotional and financial, inspite of who does.
Thabo Seadira, Department of Justice Regional Spokesperson, thanked all stakeholders and media for ensuring that the campaign becomes a success that it was, and stated that the outcry of both learners and community members needs collective approach. “It was a tear dropping experience to see some of the learners, few kilometers outside capital city of the North West still going to school bare footed in winter and having to bunk off school because they did not eat the previous night.
Some of the learners were untidy saying that their mothers have since been away for some days. There is also a group of loitering kids at Setlagole Village who are not even attending school at all, attributing that to poverty and being rejected admission at some schools due to age and lack of birth certificates.
There is a serious need of immediate intervention within Setlagole Village and the surrounding farms”, said Seadira.
Contact:
Thabo Seadira
Tel: 018 397 7071
Cell: 082 743 7782
E-mail: TSeadira@justice.gov.za
