SEARCH RESULTS

When we set out at the beginning of March to discuss the implications of the impending COVID-19 crisis on our operations and how this will affect children, we had a very narrow view of the future. Like everyone else we were waiting for the storm to blow over. Little did we know how this would change the way that we work and most importantly the way that children experience the world.

Save the Children South Africa (SCSA) is horrified by the reports of the rape of a two-year-old child at the George Mukhari Hospital, in Pretoria. The mother of the child left her at the hospital after she was reportedly told that the child needed to be isolated as it was suspected she had COVID-19.

A child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child, as mentioned in the South African constitution. The United Nation Convention on the Right of child (UNCRC) further states that “States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures”.

The importance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) is undisputed as a critical time for the rapid development of cognitive, physical, socio-emotional and language skills in young children.

With fewer companies reported increased corporate social investment (CSI) expenditure in 2019, charity organisations are forced to think about various ways of tapping into different expenditure lines of corporations in order to sustain their projects.

This Sunday was Father’s Day, and, like many other families, we have a tradition in our house in which my wife and daughter make me breakfast in bed. However, this Sunday I first had to do a TV interview about child murder. I work at Save the Children, and this is part of my job.

On the 23rd of March President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national Lockdown and from that day our lives changed. As a Grade 11 learner from the Kgakgoa Secondary School, in Ga-Chokwe Village in Moletjie (Limpopo) , my whole school life has been disrupted. I’ve had to quickly learn and master the skill of self-studying, which has not been easy.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse progress made for children in Africa by years or even decades, with economic aftershocks risking to push an additional 33 million children into poverty.

Save the Children South Africa (SCSA) calls for unified efforts to protect children from the heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse during the COVID-19 outbreak. Since the start of the lockdown there has been a reported spike in child abuse.