New child protection hotline launched in Hammanskraal
"No child deserves nor enjoys being hurt.”
The 15th child protection line was launched in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, by the Toys 4 Africa foundation.
“Because this is the 15th hotline and it has worked in other areas, I believe every single child in Hammanskraal will benefit from this child protection hotline,” director and founder of the foundation Danie van Loggerenberg said.
He explained it would offer children from the area hope and also assist in making their stance against child abuse, neglect and bullying more proactive.
“No child deserves nor enjoys being hurt so this is an opportunity for any child, parent, teacher, family member and neighbour to ensure this does not happen to any child,” Van Loggerenberg said.
Though the launch was understood not to have been inspired by a spike in statistics related to child abuse, neglect or bully, they believed there were a lot of child abuse and neglect cases that weren’t reported.
Van Loggerenberg explained this led to children not attending school, even though it was mandatory.
“One of the challenges, with all of the hotlines in the different areas, is to get assistance from the correct people,” he said, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic had also put additional pressure on parents and their income.
“You might even find more and more children are having to walk to school and that on its own, brings its own challenges. Bullying is also a problem we experience at every single school and it seems to be getting worse annually.”
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He added that although they had only recently launched the 15th hotline, this was not their first time in the township, giving back to the community.
“We did our first outreach in Hammanskraal quite a number of years ago. The area has always been in our hearts,” Van Loggerenberg said.
He added that there were many school children and many early childhood development centres in the area who would now have a voice.
“In our visits to Hammanskraal, since the first one in 2020, we’ve found the children are eager, energetic and find they are dreamers who dream big. There are a lot of hard workers,” Van Loggerenberg said.
The hotline can be reached at 079-092-2570 and is available on WhatsApp also. A phone call will have no additional costs apart from airtime or data.
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