Formation 1986 (1986) National Executive Director Dumisile Nala | Region served South Africa Website www.childlinesa.org.za | |
Purpose Child Rights
Prevention
Education
Counselling
Lobbying
Advocacy Headquarters 24 Essenwood Road, Durban, South Africa | ||
Childline South Africa is a non-profit organisation which works to protect children from violence and further the culture of children's rights in South Africa. Childline runs a national, 24-hour, toll-free telephone counselling service for children and adults, handling over 1 million calls annually. In addition to the Crisis Line telephone counseling service, Childline also offers services such as online counseling, training programs for continuous professional development, training on court preparation, and workshops on child law.
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Crisis line telephone counselling
The 24-hour national telephone counselling service is available to children up to 21 years of age, as well as adults with concerns about children. Telephone calls are routed to the Childline office closest to the caller, where trained counsellors are available to provide assistance. Calls to the Crisis Line are free from South African telephone networks Telkom, Vodacom and CellC, with the exception of MTN. Counsellors are trained to deal with a wide variety of issues.
Online counselling
Childline offers a free online counselling service through the Mxit instant messaging application, available to youth under the age of 21 years, as well as adults with concerns about children. Initially trialled as a pilot project in 2009, the service quickly saw thousands of young people making use of the service to seek help. Chat rooms are staffed by trained counselors based at the Childline national office in Durban, and are operational Monday to Saturday, from 2pm to 6pm. Conversations between children and counsellors are strictly confidential and are conducted on a one-on-one basis, allowing children to seek assistance on topics they would ordinarily find difficult to discuss. Children requiring face-to-face services may be referred to their closest regional office for further counselling.
Google is partnered with Childline in promoting online safety for children through its online child safety campaign, launched on 1 June 2012. The partnership is intended to facilitate the coordination of work done by government, industry and civil society. The online child safety campaign saw the launch of a South African version of the Google Family Safety Centre, available in English, isiZulu and Afrikaans, and provides parents with information on how to prevent children from being exposed to inappropriate content through Google services.
International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN)
International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) focuses on training and education in the child protection field at a regional and international level. Childline is a member organisation of ISPCAN and is associated with ISPCAN training and international congresses, having assisted in the organization of the ISPCAN International Congress held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in 2008 in Durban. Childline has also had numerous papers accepted for presentation at the ISPCAN International Congresses, held every two years. The national coordinator of Childline is listed as a member of the expert faculty of ISPCAN, and also an elected member of the executive council of the organization.
Child Helpline International (CHI)
Child Helpline International (CHI) is a global network of 173 child helplines in 142 countries. Its functions are to provide a forum for information sharing and mutual support, assistance with advocacy and lobbying, promoting the rights of children and child helplines as a medium of assistance to children, and to support the initiation and development of child helplines in countries which do not have such services. Childline is partnered with Child Helpline International, and hosted the CHI Sixth International Consultation in 2012 in Durban.
Funding
Childline is primarily funded by ad-hoc donations from corporations and government parastatals. The lack of a reliable source of recurring corporate and governmental donations has resulted in the threat of imminent closure of some Childline offices on several occasions.