Sunnyside police create safe haven for children
“This all happened because the Sunnyside police reached out to our island and the community took hands to form the best haven for learners in this area.”
Police have launched a new “adopt-a-social worker” initiative in collaboration with the Royal Schools Princess Park school in Arcadia recently.
“We are mobilising unemployed qualified social workers and auxiliary social workers from the community to work with learners,” said Sunnyside police spokesperson Captain Danial Mavimbela.
Through the initiative, the “adopted” social workers can interact with children to identify any underlying problems the children might have.
Children from an abusive background, suicidal children, uncontrollable and some suffering from psychological problems were identified and helped by the social workers on the initiative.
The initiative was launched by the Sunnyside police to extend their work further when dealing with school children while still running the adopt-a-cop initiative, which also aims to raise the awareness of crime prevention and personal safety.
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The initiative has been running for more than a month but was only launched last Thursday.
“This initiative runs daily; however, every Thursday these social workers go to Princess Park to speak to the kids and identify their challenges.”
Mavimbela said the social workers were not only available on Thursdays.
A call could be placed to the police station for assistance at any time, he said.
Mavimbela said it was a proactive programme meant to help all learners at the Princess Park school.
“With this initiative, we have helped several children at the school.”
Mavimbela said the police will form more partnerships with other schools in Sunnyside for such interventions to take place.
“We believe collaborations with various stakeholders could take our community a long way in addressing social ills in our neighbourhoods and schools.”
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He said this initiative worked as the police had resolved several issues already.
“We have used this method where there are problems affecting our children in Sunnyside to tackle these root causes that could lead to various other problems like crime or suicide. So, this initiative is really doing great work.”
Mavimbela said that police and social workers could identify issues affecting children at an early age was a “huge plus” for the police.
“If we leave these children unattended and they cannot speak about their problems, we could face bigger issues as a community.”
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Royal Schools Princess Park principal Maxon Dutuma said the initiative was a blessing.
“The miracle greatly expanded when they offered us the services of two social workers on a weekly basis.
“The protection of learners is of utmost importance given the fact that learners worldwide are sadly exposed to unsafe schools,” said Dutuma.
He said through the initiative the school could provide an even safer environment for learners.
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