Often parents are too busy to notice the signs that their children are experiencing some form of abuse.
Therefore, teachers are best placed to notice when children are in distress, whether it’s as a result of activities at home or in their communities.
Through their Connecting Classroom’s project, British Council, in partnership with ChildLine, is hosting a Child Protection Workshop for educators on Saturday 20 April at Townhouse Hotel in Cape Town.
Connecting Classrooms is an education project that connects South African schools with other schools, globally.
As such, partner schools are constantly working with children outside of school hours, which requires a high level of care and sensitivity.
The workshop is being hosted for teachers and British Council exam centre staff.
The British Council’s regional child protection manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Stephanie Delaney, says, “Child protection is everybody’s responsibility.
"We recognise that we have a fundamental duty of care towards all children we engage with, including a duty to protect them from abuse, through compliance with child protection laws in each of the countries we operate.
"Hence we felt it important to host such a workshop with educators.”
ChildLine is at the forefront of child protection in South Africa and, as such, British Council has partnered with them and their facilitators to lead the workshop.
Over 50 educators from the Cape Town area are expected to attend.
At times, children are not able to distinguish between different forms of abuse.
The workshop will equip educators with the tools to, not only recognise the different types of abuse, but will also guide them on how to help children recognise the various abuses and to help them deal with disclosure.
Topics to be addressed during the workshop include: children’s rights, the impact of child abuse, disclosure and the dynamics of child abuse.
“We hope to conduct more such workshops in future in other provinces,” says Stephanie.
