Kempton Park Child Protection Hotline now open to serve
To report child abuse, neglect, bullying or other concerns, contact the Kempton Park Child Protection Hotline on 079 688 2868.
The Kempton Park Child Protection Hotline officially celebrated its launch on Friday following the finalisation of the call centre set out to offer local support to child abuse cases.
At the event, Danie van Loggerenberg said the Kempton Park Child Protection Hotline Facebook page is the third most popular above all the other East Rand chapters even before its official launch.
The reason Danie took this mission upon himself to help abused children and their families is he believes that existing channels in South Africa are flawed.
“If everybody fulfilled their duties in terms of child safety, I would not have a job,” Danie said while he explained the pitfalls experienced among networks focused on child welfare. “However, we’re not here to criticise. We’re here to offer assistance to these channels, in addition, to educate, which is one of our most important missions. Education surrounding a child’s abusive or traumatised behaviour, the acts that led to such behaviour, being able to identify and treat the nature of the abuse suffered by a child.”
The purpose of the hotline, Danie explained, is to offer a network reference structure that will act as a mediator to direct calls and cases to the proper channels aimed at the particular act of abuse inflicted on or suffered by a child.
“At our call centres, we also offer the expertise of psychologists and child psychologists who can offer preliminary therapy and advice until the case gets referred to the official prescribed channel. At the same time, we are also here to assist professionals in the industry who are often facing a lot of red tape to help a child. “We’re here to say, ‘tell us what you need to secure a child’s safety and we’ll do our utmost best to assist your end goal’.”
With the official launch of the Kempton hotline, Danie is also reaching out to local experts in the security industries, schools, child welfares, SAPS and legal experts/advisors to offer their support for the cause.
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The first Kemptonian organisations that have partnered with the hotline so far are Praesidium Securitas, owned by Loki Duvenhage, as well as the Crusaders Bike Club.
“Kempton is an alarming area suffering tremendous volumes of reported abuse and stagnation within the official networks focused on helping children. On an educational front, there’s a lot to be done,” Danie said to guests.
For the Kempton hotline to facilitate its goals, it depends on community funding or donations, in addition to expertise. To report child abuse, neglect, bullying or other concerns, contact the Kempton Park Child Protection Hotline on 079 688 2868.
Follow and like the Kempton Park Child Protection Facebook Page.
For more information or to offer your expertise and support, contact Danie on 082 303 7088.
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