Child Protection Week: 140 sanitary pad packs donated to rural girls

As part of our focus on the girl-child during Child Protection Week, the Western Cape Minister of Social Development, Albert Fritz, donated 140 sanitary pad packs in Laingsburg and Beaufort West.

The theme for this year’s Child Protection Week is, “Child Protection is Everyone’s Responsibility”.

Access to sanitary pads makes a difference in the lives of girls, including ensuring they stay in school and have dignity.

To find more sustainable solutions, the Ministry is in the early stages of planning and consulting with stakeholders from the private sector, NGOs and other government spheres, to look into broader issues of sexual and reproductive health for girls.

Our work will include the possibility of formulating a Provincial Strategy on the roll-out of free sanitary pads to the poor in the Western Cape.

Child abuse, especially the abuse of girls, continues to be a major challenge in South Africa and in the province. Research conducted on the sexual abuse of children by the University of Cape Town revealed that 1 in every 3 children had experienced some form of sexual abuse.

Disturbingly, the average age at which girls were first subjected to sexual abuse was 14, and 15 for boys.

This is why, at R694-million, the Department continues to devote its largest share of the annual budget to child protection and services to children and families.

We call on parents and the public to report any cases of child abuse to a social worker at any of our local and regional offices, or by contacting the DSD hotline on 0800 220 250.