A child from one of Save the Children South Africa's projects
In an inspiring display of what co-ordinated, ambitious action can achieve, rights organisation Save the Children managed to improve the lives of more than 166 million children globally in 2013, according to their latest statistics. Closer to home, it works with some of the most marginalised children in South Africa and in 2014, it brought more than 120 000 of them closer to the enjoyment of their rights.
As long as the health and equal living and learning situations of millions of these children remain compromised, Save the Children South Africa (SCSA) will continue to work towards their improved access to education, health, protection and the empowerment of all children.
“South Africa has emerged as a global actor and attained middle-income status, but the situation of its children is dire,” said Save the Children South Africa’s Chief Executive Officer, Gugulethu Ndebele.
“Seventy percent live in the poorest households; less than 29% of children under five access early childhood development services, and 60% of child deaths are associated with malnutrition,” she said, listing these, among other, shocking statistics about the state of child rights in the country.
Although South Africa spends a large proportion of its gross domestic product on education and has achieved near-universal school enrolment, she said: “Nearly half of the children who start school never make it to grade 12 and at the age of nine, 35% of pupils are illiterate and innumerate.
“Eighty percent of children attempt to learn in poorly resourced, overcrowded classrooms in which teachers lack the required standards of knowledge and skills.”
In addition, she said every year 50 000 children are victims of violent crime; last year 11 000 were murdered or seriously assaulted and 26 000 reported cases of sexual offences against them.
There are also almost a million foreign-born migrants currently living in South Africa, according to the Save the Children Southern Africa Regional Office research document “Jozi Lights”, due for publication in September.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, about 400 000 of these migrants are children.
Many other children enter the country irregularly, which means they entered South Africa without legal permission to do so and do not enjoy the relative security associated with having the correct identity documents, among others.
The dangers they face while travelling include crossing dangerous rivers; wild animal attacks; jail time; threats from violent border gangs; sexual violence, and starvation.
Since 1998 SCSA has been rolling up its sleeves and tackling the violation of the rights of these migrant children and other vulnerable, disenfranchised children.
It addresses five thematic areas in its programmes in partnership with government, civil society and academics. These areas are the holistic early childhood care and development programme; health and nutrition programme; education programme; protection programme and the children’s rights governance programme.
Violence against children has played out not only in their homes but also in their schools, and SCSA has been at the forefront of the banning of corporal punishment in schools — a widespread problem that caused lasting trauma to thousands of children.
“We are currently working on an evidenced-based best practice model with 15 schools in KwaZulu-Natal aimed at promoting positive discipline in schools,” said Ndebele.
“This is a closely documented process of rolling out a seven-step programme for schools, to move away from using corporal punishment to focusing on learning in the classroom. In addition we continue to work with the Department of Basic Education to promote positive discipline.”
Children’s safety is also compromised during spates of xenophobic violence and SCSA has led the way in terms of promoting best practice in child protection in emergencies. During the recent xenophobic violence, SCSA was “on of the lead organisations in setting up child-friendly safe spaces at the transition camps in Phoenix, Isipingo and Chatsworth”.
When it comes to education, SCSA’s approach is clear. “The ultimate goal for our education portfolio is that all children have access to equal education opportunities,” according to the CEO.
One of the ways the organisation is doing this is by strengthening early childhood development (ECD) centres.
It has facilitated numerous ECD forums; trained practitioners, managers, cooks and gardeners at these centres, and administers two of these centres itself — one in Gauteng and the other in Mpumalanga.
The organisation is also working hard to improve pupil literacy and teacher training, said Ndebele.
In the Free State, “we are working closely with the education department to support their foundation phase reading strategy … Subject advisors have been trained in the literacy boost curriculum and have been supported to roll out foundation phase teacher training across the province”.
With its partner Penreach in Mpumalanga, the organisation has also implemented an innovative approach in 57 school communities, as well as in neighbouring Free State to “provide training to teachers to improve classroom teaching; build capacity of leadership to support effective foundation phase literacy education; increase the availability and use of reading materials in the community, and support reading delivery systems at district level”.
In terms of improving child health, SCSA’s vision is in line with the country’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2016 to 2030, which state: “No child under the age of five dies from preventable disease, and all children in South Africa grow healthily and enjoy long-term good health”.
One example of an SCSA project that aims to achieve this is the Umzinto: Giving Girls the Freedom To Live project.
A key problem faced by menstruating teenagers is poor sanitation facilities both at home and at school, which entails limited access to clean water, and the use of pit latrines with no privacy.
This menstrual health management project gives girls in KwaZulu-Natal training workshops, information sessions with caregivers, and reusable, environmentally friendly sanitary packs.
The Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (ASRH) project in the Free State empowers adolescents to understand their sexual and reproductive health rights.
Here, the ultimate goal is to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies and the number of new HIV infections “by providing adolescents with the necessary skills to demand and access appropriate ASRH services”, said Ndebele, and to “increase school governing bodies’ and school communities’ understanding and ability to advocate for these services”.
SCSA’s goal for all children is that they grow up in a safe environment.
This applies particularly to children who have migrated internally and across borders. The organisation wants to ensure that unaccompanied, separated or undocumented migrant children in South Africa realise their rights.
On a national level, SCSA supports government to protect migrant children by, among other actions, ensuring the realisation of strategic research to identify policy and implementation gaps; strengthening collaboration so that civil society speaks with one voice on the protection of migrant children; and that their stories are known by decision-makers and the general public, said Ndebele.
Provincially, SCSA’s work has focused on empowering stakeholders to always consider the best interests of the child.
In Limpopo SCSA has been working with social workers, immigration officials, shelter management and caregivers, communities and children “to facilitate access to school for migrant children and educational support; build capacity of duty bearers to conduct proper children’s assessment and identify suitable long-term solutions for children, and organise community conversations to discuss how the whole community can participate in increasing the protection of children, especially unaccompanied migrant children”.
She said the most exciting prospect for SCSA in the last few months was its ability to increase the visibility of migrant children and build stronger partnerships with government, the United Nations and civil society.
“Given our experience at global, national and local levels, Save the Children is well-placed to provide concrete recommendations and support the building of more effective child protection systems.”