Cape children at risk with only two social workers serving at Childline centres

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Cape Town - Childline Western Cape has revealed that there are only two social workers serving at each of its centres in the province, putting vulnerable children at risk. The recent focus of attention on the state of the organisation comes after a Mitchells Plain mother claimed it had placed her 3-year-old daughter on a waiting list after it was discovered that she had been raped, allegedly by her father, in August last year. “We engaged with the mother to inform her that we regrettably had a waiting list for clients needing to access our therapeutic counselling services,” said the executive director of Childline Western Cape, Ricki Fransman. With offices in Wynberg, Parow and Mitchells Plain, the organisation provides a much-needed 24-hour toll-free crisis counselling line, individual face-to-face counselling, group work and Prevention and Early Intervention Programme workshops and training. Fransman said the organisation’s social work team consisted of only 10 social workers.

“The issue of gender-based violence is top of mind to many, given the media coverage and possibly as a result of communities and individuals being better informed and aware of available services. This has caused an increase in need for our services, which has a direct impact on our ability to respond to the demand with the limited resources we have to staffing and funding,” said Fransman.

“Two social work staff per centre is not enough to meet the demand and this causes us to have a waiting list. As an organisation, we are very cognisant of the impact this may have on clients needing counselling and debriefing.”

Fransman said her organisation, heavily reliant on funding, needed an additional six social workers in order to reduce the waiting lists and reach more children and communities.

“Roughly, this translates into a cost of about R1.6m for salaries and other overheads, and despite our fund-raising efforts, we have not been able to expand our staff complement.”

The organisation also runs a community project linking orphans and vulnerable children to services and provides court preparation support to children in five sexual offences courts (Atlantis, Cape Town, Khayelitsha, Paarl and Wynberg).

“One phone call could make a huge difference in the life of a child. Thousands of callers contact the toll-free lines, so it’s essential that there are professionals to provide the necessary counselling for children in need,” said clinical director of the Teddy Bear Foundation, Shaheda Omar.

“Many NGOs in the child protection sector lean on the support of Childline, as they are often the first line of making a disclosure or reporting. Childline facilitates further support and links children with the relevant resources.”

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