Help With Child Neglect
You Can Help with Fighting Child Neglect in South Africa
Children in South Africa face a range of challenges, many of which can be attributed to various forms of neglect. These range in nature and can lead to a variety of lifelong traumas or developmental obstacles. This simply feeds the cycle of poverty, violence and inequality that is already rampant through the South African population. But this cycle can be broken. We can all help together with the fight against child neglect.
To truly help, it is important for us to understand what we are helping with. What exactly is child neglect?
Porchia-Usher defines child neglect as “an ongoing, serious pattern of deprivation of a child’s basic physical, developmental, and/or emotional needs for healthy growth and development.” This is often caused by a parent or other person responsible for the children in question failing to provide the basics needed for the children not to be placed in harm’s way regarding health, safety and wellbeing. These basics include food, shelter, clothes, medical care and supervision.
As far as the abuse that children face, this challenge is most prevalent, and often the most complicated to help with. This is because there are a myriad of reasons that can cause this issue. It is most often not intentional failure of parents or caregivers, but rather systemic and societal issues that are the root cause of the neglect.
These root cause include, but is certainly not limited to:
- Poverty
- Unemployment
- Crime
- Violence
- Inability to access services
- Lack of educational opportunities
- Mental health issues
- Physical health
So, if we want to fight child neglect, these above-mentioned issues should certainly form part of the challenges we must be ready to help with.
That said, the children who are already faced with child neglect need our help sooner rather than later. This is where Abraham Kriel Bambanani focuses its efforts. We are a registered NPO providing care and skills development for traumatised children and youth in need, in the greater Johannesburg area. We provide shelter, physical care, rehabilitation and skills development for children who have been subjected to trauma, abuse, molestation, poverty, neglect and unemployment. We do this via a range of community services, including residential care, community services and educational programmes.
It is only with your help that we can fight the effect of child neglect. As a non-profit organisation, we are dependent on the help we receive from the public. The best thing is that no bit of support is too small. You can get involved by making cash donations, product donations or even the donation of services. Contact our office for more information.
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