Child sexual abuse cases ‘worsening’
An organisation that assists orphaned children says not enough is being done to tackle the hidden pandemic of child sexual abuse.
Thursday marks the start of Child Protection Week.
This year's theme is 'Every Conversation Matters: Shifting Conversation to Action.'
" The shocking statistic is that a child is raped around every 30 minutes in South Africa or more, and sadly, things have actually worsened in the past few years and has not improved,” says the Restory Foundation's Natalie Naude.
Naude says the statistics show that urgent action is needed.
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" There is a quote that comes to mind from Gandhi, which says, 'The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members'. And I think that in this regard, we as a society are sadly failing our children dismally."
She says aside from seeking justice, children healing from abuse need support.
" I think when we are looking at the scale of this issue, you know, just how often it's happening and the terrible systemic failures that we face, we can't simply put all of our eggs into the basket of trying to see justice for these children.
"So we absolutely want justice in every single case, but just with such poor results, we know that we have to look at what we can do to help."
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