Childline South Africa
Conference in Cape Town

Childline has focused most of our comment on Child Protection issues.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO Telkom Foundation funded the development of a computerised data collection programme for the Childline South African network.

SASPCAN is not a direct services provider but provides the network of service providers in the field of child protection, including volunteers, with a forum for inter-action, debate, training and development. At present the National Coordinator of Childline SA is a member of the expert faculty of ISPCAN, and also an elected member of the Executive Council of the organization. To develop, maintain and implement the collection of data on Childline services in order to develop a global picture of the problems and issues that children telephone Childlines about. Childline services began in KwaZulu-Natal in 1986 in response to the very high levels of child sexual abuse which characterize South Africa. developing appropriate social services including a 24-hour toll-free helpline and supportive therapeutic social services for children who have been victims of violence, and their families. ongoing training and development of staff members and volunteers. Childline South Africa is seriously committed to supporting the provision of high quality services to Children and Families in South Africa, especially children and families who are vulnerable and affected by abuse, neglect and exploitation. We therefore provide a range of training programmes to professionals across sectors as well as volunteers who work in this field. Social workers and psychologists are core service providers to children and families. Childline South Africa is committed to ensuring that children and families benefit from new knowledge skills and programmes and therefore provides opportunities for accredited training, taking responsibility for applying for accreditation for as many of the training opportunities below as possible. Training on inter-sector working across disciplines involved in the management of child abuse Managing child abuse, neglect and exploitation is not the responsibility of any one sector or profession. This mini workshop discusses the Criminal and Civil Justice systems in relation to the expert witness, how to prepare oneself and one’s report for this task. Childline SA is a service provider who offers the training to the community. Unemployed community members are screened, selected, trained and deployed as child and youth care workers to service families in their own communities. Childline SA provides the therapeutic program for the Child Protection Program. Childline SA has partnered with NACCW in some of the provinces through the Isibindi project to strengthen child protection services in rural communities. Vulnerable children from under-resourced rural communities, who become victims of sexual abuse, are provided with opportunities to heal, through therapeutic support involving individual and group therapy for the children and the caregivers. Furthermore therapeutic work is done with caregivers who are requested to attend the residential programme with the child. Childline SA provides intensive individual sessions with each child care worker that attends the program, as well as debriefing and an educational workshop. The purpose of this is two-fold: to help each child care worker with personal issues since they come from environments characterized by poverty, violence and abuse and are often adult survivors of abuse/trauma themselves- these sessions help with healing and ensures that the psycho-social care of each worker is recognized and encouraged, and this will ensure that a professional and compassionate service is provided to each child. We the therapists from Childline SA are amazed time and time again by the resilience and beauty of the children we meet and realize if a child is loved, believed, listened to and kept safe, they bloom into the best that they can be. Childline South Africa is commitment to developing appropriate social services, including a 24-hour toll-free helpline. The use of volunteers allows our professional staff, to render therapeutic services to children, adolescents and families within the community. It is generally run as a short and intensive program, geared toward equipping volunteer counselors with a broad understanding of topics such as child abuse, poverty and neglect, HIV/AIDS and child labour, as well as basic counseling and communication skills.