Goal of Project

The “Eye on the Child” project’s goal is increase the prevention of child abuse and neglect by strengthening systems for effective identifying and management of children who are victim of various kinds of abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Target group: 0-18 year olds from rural and semi-rural disadvantaged communities.

Objectives

1. Strengthen the capacity of member organizations to support and supervise community volunteers rendering services to children, families and communities.
2. Increase capacity of volunteers to respond effectively to situation of risk of child abuse, neglect and exploitation.
3. Increase the number of children receiving protection and preventative services.
4. Network for effective referral for overall comprehensive support and child family.

CWSA’s National Child Protection Program has successfully empowered volunteers within vulnerable communities to identify OVC and needs of children at risk determine their needs and facilitate appropriate community care options. The proposed program is called  Isolabantwana (eye on the child) which engages with communities empowering  them to partner and intervene in  prevention of abuse and neglect. Project was designed to strengthen response by increasing skills to community members to respond to children who have been abused, neglected and exploited are identified and receive appropriate treatment and support. This model has increased protection of children through enabling the community to respond effectively to children made vulnerable through abuse and neglect by ensuring that  staff are adequately trained to use the  referral systems that are in place. This program engages the communities as valuable partners in providing comprehensive services to vulnerable children in deep rural areas by equipping them with skills on identifying children at risk, reporting and referral of children for medical, social and psychosocial support. It also contributes to the national HIV/STI Strategic plan and ME framework for South Africa in the following ways:

• Mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS and create an enabling social environment for care, treatment and support of children by strengthening the implementation of policy and programmes of interventions; Increase the proportion of children receiving services.
• Expand and protection network of CWSA by engaging and strengthening communities to recruit and train new community caregivers. Strengthen support mentoring and supervision of community caregivers.

The unique concept of this project is the provision of a 24-hour response to children by trained community volunteers authorized by the Commissioner of Child Welfare according to the Children’s ACT to intervene and protect children who are at risk. The strengths of this project is the:

• Focus on prevention, protection and education services to families & communities.
• Protection of children over weekends and after-hours (24 hour service).
• Enhancement of the community’s responsibility in terms of child protection; Long-term prevention of child abuse and neglect.
• Increased awareness of services for overall well-being and protection of children.