Pta North gets child protection hotline
“Too many are only interested in helping children once they know the child has been raped or molested but it’s wrong."
The north of Pretoria was the latest area to get a child protection hotline dedicated to facilitating and organising assistance for children if and when the need arose.
“The hotline is there to make the lives of the SAPS, social workers and emergency services easier,” founder Danie van Loggenberg said, adding that children could WhatsApp, SMS or send a ‘please call me’ to the number to get assistance.
However, the usage of the hotline was not only restricted to children.
Van Loggenberg said parents, teachers and neighbours could use the number to report matters which related to the well-being of children or abuse.
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“We also get many schools which phone us when the need arises and we ensure the correct people get to the school to offer assistance.”
He further explained that while they received the calls, they forwarded the information to the relevant party to intervene and offer assistance – from involving the police, social workers and lawyers.
“Our job is not to investigate, ours is to make it easier for the affected children to get help,” Van Loggenberg said.
He further explained that while a lot of people called in and asked to remain anonymous, he would share the caller’s identity with the police.
“You can stay anonymous but I am going to share with the SAPS who you are because they’re not going to get all the details from me, they need to get the details from you,” Van Loggenberg said.
Despite his efforts at trying to promote child protection, he said too much of it was reactive.
“Rather safe than sorry – too much of child protection is reactive, we need to become proactive,” he said, adding that help only came to children once something had happened.
“Too many are only interested in helping children once they know the child has been raped or molested. I understand the mindset but it’s wrong,” Van Loggenberg said, adding if things continued as they were, it would be too late.
“We need to educate upfront and stop it before it gets to that.”
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Van Loggenberg highlighted the main way they would “change the country” would be through the community working together.
Plans were also in the works to open offices which would act as a call centre.
The hotline could be reached on 066-433-8818.
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