Rise in abuse – Childline
The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign started on Tuesday. Charmel Payet and Nabeelah Shaikh ask if enough is done for the rest of the year?
NGOs working with abused women and children unequivocally agree that abuse against women and children is on the increase and that more needs to be done to prevent it. Not just during the 16-day annual campaign.
Vanespiri Pillay, director of Childline KZN, said it had fielded 279 178 calls since January to its 24/7 Crisisline, about 28 000 calls a month. She said neglect was the most common complaint followed by sexual and physical abuse. She said there been an increase in reports of bullying and child-onchild sexual abuse.
The cases it dealt with daily were horrific, Pillay added. She said child abuse had escalated to pandemic proportions but the lack of adequate resources had resulted in most organisations being unable to protect vulnerable children.
“Social workers are overwhelmed by the high caseloads and inadequate resources. NGOs are inundated by the social ills at grassroots level and were always struggling to find adequate funding.”
Eureka Oliver from Bobbi Bear, said the 16 Days campaign was not enough. “We are dealing with violence against children every day. We are called out to assist children who have been abandoned, raped, beaten and burnt, daily. While our mandate is children, we assisted a 94-year-old grandmother who had been raped. “NGOs need support from the government and businesses. While rushing out to these cases we have to worry about how to pay running costs such as water and electricity to keep the organisation open as there is such a need.”
Cynthia Shezi, a senior counsellor at the Open Door Crisis Centre in Pinetown, has listened to stories of abused women and children for more than 10 years and said 16 Days was never going to be enough to raise awareness.
She said the organisation has between six and seven new cases of abuse against women and children every day. “I have seen and heard it all. Abuse against women and children is reaching a level that can’t be controlled any more. More and more women are opting to stay in abusive relationships. This is where the biggest problem lies.”
She said this was mainly for financial support or cultural reasons. But she encouraged women to break the silence and get out of their unhealthy relationships and get help – before it was too late.
The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign was adopted in 1998 as one of the intervention strategies towards creating a society free of violence. It runs annually from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day). The period includes Universal Children’s Day and World Aids Day.
This week, the government, along with a number of organisations embarked on different campaigns. President Jacob Zuma launched the campaign themed Count Me In: Together Moving a Non-violent South Africa Forward, at Reiger Park, Boksburg near Joburg.
In Durban, eThekwini Mayor James Nxumalo led a march from King DiniZulu Park to the City Hall where he addressed the public about the government’s plan to build a peaceful and caring society where women and children were protected from violence.
The municipality launched an anti-substanceabuse forum on Thursday, saying the abuse of women and children was usually associated with abuse of alcohol or other substances and this was a significant time to launch such a campaign.