- A newly upgraded child-friendly reporting facility has opened at the Kraaifontein police station, thanks to the efforts of NGO Matla A Bana.
- The facility aims to provide a comforting environment for child rape victims and minimise their trauma during police interviews, with support from corporate sponsors like BDO and the Rosary Trust.
- This initiative is part of Matla A Bana’s broader mission, which includes creating similar facilities nationwide and distributing comfort packs to child victims.
The first few hours after the rape of a child has been reported are crucial. Primarily, to provide the child with comfort from the trauma and a safe environment for the police official to interview the child.
On Friday, a newly upgraded child-friendly reporting facility was opened at the Family Violence, Child protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit at Kraaifontein police station, thanks to the work of NGO, Matla A Bana, meaning “strength to the children” in Sesotho. Furthermore, the NGO handed over comfort packs for child victims.
Inside the brightly painted container room a giant teddy bear seated in a cosy corner, and playful pictures on the walls soften the trauma of the child, while having to speak to the investigating officer.
By creating this room and supplying the children with comfort packs, the organisation works to minimise the secondary abuse these children suffer when they report the crime against them.
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Since its inception in 2004 the organisation, started by Monique and Callie Strydom, has created 43 such facilities across the country, and is supplying some 2 000 comfort packs per year to child rape victims.
As part of its corporate social investment (CSI) project, audit firm BDO along with the Rosary Trust came aboard to support Matla A Bana on this project by collecting items for the comfort bags that contain toiletries, a teddy bear, a letter to the child and something to eat.
Statistics
Since 2008, the police have specified the number of child rape cases in their annual crime statistics, but instead lumps it together under the sexual offences category that include rape and sexual offences of all genders and ages.
The numbers of child rape in South Africa is thus not known, but in 2014 the police after persistent requests from Africa Check provided data that indicate 18 500 child rapes were reported in that year.
At the opening of the room, Monique Strydom said Kraaifontein has persisted on the top 10 list of police precincts where rape was reported the most in the country.
In the most recent crime statistics released in February, 79 sexual offences were reported in Kraaifontein between October and December 2023, a 17,9% increase from the precious year.
Strydom said it was a challenging project for the organisation due to funding, but negotiations with the Kraaifontein Police Station started last year to complete the work on the facility.
she said.
Provincial commander for forensic social services Col Geraldine Jonkers commended the work the organisation does to support the FCS.
