Pretoria - As Child Protection Week approaches, the Gauteng Department of Health’s Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit is conducting a week-long awareness campaign educating both children and parents on children’s rights and safety.
Department spokesperson Simon Zwane said that from 20 May until 23 May 2013, the unit is conducting a door-to-door campaign in Alra Park, Nigel, which aims to educate parents about their children’s safety, the services provided in Gauteng to assist parents and children as well as how these services can be accessed.
“Some of the topics that they will focus on include adolescence and peer pressure, which usually results in drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, health problems due to bad eating habits and getting involved in criminal activities, amongst others,” Zwane said.
The week-long activity will end this Friday, where the department will host a Child Protection Week event in Alra Park Stadium, targeting children of school going age.
The event is in partnership with the Gauteng Departments of Education, Social Development, Community Safety, Correctional Service as well as South African Police Service, Ekurhuleni Municipality, South African Cancer Association and other local NGOs.
All the departments will on the day have stalls, where they will provide interactive programmes on safety and protection of children.
“Activities will focus on road safety, health, sports and recreation activities,” Zwane explained.
The department added that during the current financial year, it will continue to strengthen programmes such as school health to ensure that children in the province are healthy and safe.
Improving the lives of children
Gauteng is continuing to make strides in improving the lives of children, ensuring that they are protected from preventable diseases and they realise their growth potential.
The incidence of severe malnutrition in the province has decreased from 3.5% to 2.9% at the end of March 2013, indicating that more children are getting the nutrition they need for their development.
The Provincial Health Department attributed this achievement to its goal of reducing child deaths from preventable causes and also to ensure that children are protected from harm in the province.
Another fruitful initiative to ensure that children are healthy and safe includes the department’s exclusive breastfeeding campaign, which is assisting in increasing the number of healthy babies.
“Immunisation is another critical intervention aimed at increasing child survival by eliminating deaths from preventable causes. This service is provided daily by all clinics and some hospitals in Gauteng.
“Coverage of children under five years has consistently been above the national target of 90%. The percentage of children under one year who were fully immunised was 113.5% in the 2012/13 financial year.” – SAnews.gov.za
