Protection for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Introduction

© UNICEF/South Africa/2008/Pirozzi

Providing a safe and protective environment for children is a priority.

There are more children orphaned or left vulnerable by AIDS in South Africa than anywhere else in the world. It is estimated that over half of the country’s 2.5 million orphans have lost a parent to AIDS. As parents and aunts and uncles die or fall ill, it falls on the wider community to take care of the orphans left behind. But the capacity of communities to care for these children has been stretched to its limit. Orphaned children, and those whose parents are too sick to take care of them, fall deeper into poverty. They face many obstacles in accessing social grants and basic services and, along with the emotional distress of losing their parents, they are exposed to neglect or abuse when they no longer have their parents to protect them.

Increasingly, extended families are applying to be formal foster parents of orphans in order to access social grants, and this has placed a heavy strain on the child protection system. 

Creating a Safety Net
Many informal community initiatives, commonly known as childcare forums, provide support to orphans and vulnerable children and refer them for services. But the support that children receive from these forums is inconsistent, even for those who get it, and it does not reach the majority of children in need.

UNICEF is working to strengthen community and home based care for orphans, mainly through taking forward the initiative of these forums. There are over 300 organisations performing childcare forum functions and UNICEF has supported them through training and monitoring. The intention is to replicate this initiative throughout Southern Africa.

© UNICEF/South Africa/2008/Schermbrucker

UNICEF’s efforts to strengthen the child protection system focus on assisting government structures to prevent and respond to abuse and sexual violence.

Protecting Women and Children from Violence
A vital area of intervention for UNICEF is in protecting women and children from violence. Rates of sexual assault in South Africa are amongst the highest in the world and children are most at risk: some 40% of reported cases are committed against children. This amounts to more than 60 children raped a day. In some centres for survivors of rape and sexual abuse, up to 80% of those seen are children. Despite these figures, rape continues to be one of the most underreported – and therefore unpunished – crimes, according to the South African Police Service. And when rapes are reported, only 7% of these reported cases lead to a conviction.

Supporting Best Practice Models
UNICEF’s efforts to strengthen the child protection system focus on assisting government structures to prevent and respond to abuse and sexual violence. It does this mainly through the National Prosecuting Authority, which leads the interdepartmental management team on the prevention of violence against women and children.

2008 saw the first year of the Danish-funded project, “Accelerating Child and Women’s Protection through Prevention and Response to Violence and HIV ”. The project is centred on the model of the Thuthuzela Care Centre – a hospital based one-stop service for women and children who have been raped. Nurses and psychologists, a prosecutor and police officers staff each centre, offering physical and emotional support. It has been internationally recognised as a best practice model and has shown promising results in increasing prosecution rates, reducing the time of completing rape cases, and providing high standards of care for survivors.

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