Let’s make Child Protection Week mean something!

If you listen to the news, you will have heard about the 22-month-old baby girl in Vhembe who was violently raped by an unknown assailant at the beginning of May.

In another current case, the search is on for two-year-old Omphile Sethole, who was kidnapped from her home in Limpopo. We pray for her safe return. But it’s difficult to hold onto hope when 23% of children who go missing in South Africa are never found, or are found dead.

Why am I sharing these horrific statistics with you? Because they highlight the need to protect children … all children. Especially those too young to even tell us what has been done to them.

These are babies – frightened of the dark and monsters under the bed. Only, in these cases, the monsters are real.

Child Protection Week – from 29 May to 5 June – shines the spotlight on the need for action. Not just from the police and child welfare services – but from every one of us.

We have eyes that see and ears that hear. We can all play a part in helping to keep children safe.

And we have voices we can use to demand action from the system – government, police departments and social services.

And we can help provide safe places for children in need of protection … places like The Durban Child & Youth Care Centre.

Here, children who’ve been rescued from harm feel secure enough to sleep peacefully and laugh freely. We help them overcome the trauma of the past and rebuild confidence, trust and hope for the future.

Will you be part of that, please?

Your donation, made today, provides shelter, food, clothing, therapy and education for vulnerable children.

We cannot change their past – but together, we can give them the future they deserve.