New child welfare director to focus on child protection

KEMPTON Park Child Welfare’s new director has big dreams for the organisation and hopes to see it have a stronger foothold within the community.

Zodwa Mzondo, who joined child welfare at the beginning of December last year, wants the welfare to play a bigger role in Kempton Park, especially in terms of child protection which she feels can be better.

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“My vision for Child Welfare Kempton Park is to contribute towards improving child protection in the Kempton community, and also regaining the community’s trust. The organisation is community-oriented and its main purpose is to serve the needs of the community,” she said.

Mzondo, who spent four years in the UK as head of the children and families at local government, also said she planned on bench-marking the organisation against world standards with regards to child protection, so that child welfare can keep on improving and offer only world class quality services to the community.

“In South Africa, people are only sensitised about women and child abuse during the 16 Days of Activism campaign, whereas the rest of the world is constantly speaking out and raising awareness about this issue,” the former South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) director explains.

The 44-year-old Mzondo also mentions the need to develop systems which deal precisely with the problems faced by Kempton’s children and families.

She feels all strategies on how to deal with social issues in each community must be customised specifically for that community and its problems, because essentially every population’s concerns are unique and should be dealt with accordingly.

“For example Kempton has no programmes for victims of all sorts of abuse. There is no continuation of services following the completion of a child abuse case. We need to make time for these children who come from abusive backgrounds, they need therapy and thorough healing. We as the welfare can’t wait for funding from the department before we can do that,” Mzondo asserts.

Another issue of concern to Mzondo is transparency in how the welfare renders its services to the community, in terms of finances, service delivery, marketing strategy, research and also with regard to collaborating with other stakeholders .

“All this will surely contribute to the welfare making a difference and adding value to the community of Kempton Park,” Mzondo concluded.