Child Protection tackles issues faced by a lot of school learners
Children's books were distributed to the school, along with information about the Alberton Child Protection Hotline and how to contact it if there is a child in need of assistance.
The National Centre for Child Protection hosted an anti-bullying educational talk at Grace Trinity School For Girls as part of their school-wide educational programme on October 22.
The educational discussion was not just only about bullying, but also about the dangers that children face daily, such as substance abuse and social media.
The girls were told about the dangers of social media and how they should not interact with strangers on the internet and should rather report this to their parents or their teachers.
According to Danie van Loggerenberg, a school is a safe place for learners because there is a support system in place when things go wrong.
“When a child does not know how to deal with such situations, they sometimes have open communication with their parents, but what happens when they don’t?
“What do they do then, because that is when children begin to suffer?
“The long-term damage affects the child, for example, if you bully someone and tell them they are fat, does the one who is being bullied stop eating? So, what happens?
“Many children are cruel to others because they endure pain somewhere else, and they take it out on another child. When they hurt that child, however, they never consider the impact; they only consider the here and now and it is about speaking about that impact.
“When someone is mean to another person, they move on with their lives, and they don’t think about them again, but it affects the one being bullied.
“The main goal for this day is to stop the problems faced by many children and while schools teach learners about this issue, it is sometimes helpful to have an outside voice say, ‘Listen, this is what we can do and how we can help, and this is what we plan to do’,” said van Loggerenberg.
Van Loggereberg went on to say that social media is a problem for children because they use it in inappropriate ways, one of which is cyberbullying.
“Learners take what’s on social media and live by what it says, even if it’s bad, but because they saw it on social media, they believe it’s okay to believe what they see on social media,” said van Loggerenberg.
For information contact Alberton Child Protection Hotline: 064 931 5139. The number is available via WhatsApp, SMS and phone calls and all problems relating to a child can be reported through the hotline.
