The Children's Protection and Welfare Act 2012: weapon against child abuse

Fighting gender based violence and reducing teenage pregnancy

The program addresses gender based violence (GBV) including prevention, care and awareness raising in the Nhlangano region. The goal is to reduce GBV as a cause and consequence of HIV. The project aims to increase the information of and change the attitude towards gender based equities, to improve GBV prevention, and to improve survivors’ access to comprehensive services to meet their social, medical, psychological, and legal needs.
From 2012 until 2016 NATICC focused on human rights, particularly in regard to childrens' rights and gender equality. They started with awareness rising in the communities with the help of prevention officers (Gender based violence and HIV/AIDS - it's urgent!). Then they established regional offices in order to enter the communities and to link the communities with NATICC and the governmental level. During this phase sahee supported the PSS (psycho-social support)-Part and conflict resolutions on the household-level (Combat gender based violence and HIV/AIDS: an integral, community based approach). For 2017-2022 NATICC decided to narrow down their focus to children aged 0-17 and use the Children's Protection and Welfare Act 2012 as leading instrument for awareness raising and legal support. There are two main aspects guiding this phase:
1. There are 1300 abused children that are supported by NATICC care workers and psychologists.
2. The publishing of a booklet summarizing and explaining the Children's Act of 2012 and its use by the prevention and legal officer to do prevention work in the communities. Prevention and legal work includes a. Family counseling: legal counseling and advice to families affected by GBV including court preparation, b. design and implement legal advocacy campaigns, c. conduct legal training and presentation to relevant stakeholders, d. do workshops for community based volunteers, e. education to youths, parents, church pastors, school teachers, community leaders and volunteers on the Children's Act, f. conduct campaigns on child rights, and g. conduct home visits to educate families on child rights especially to those with abused children.

Project site

Nhlangano, Shishelweni district (Map)

Beneficiaries

Women: 3375
Men: 3375
Children under age 16: 17700

Project costs and assistance by sahee

The entire project costs are CHF 190’000.–, whereas sahee takes over CHF 129’000.–.

sahee stays in regular contact with the project leaders, monitors the activities and visits the project on site once a year.

Duration of assistance

1st of February 2017 to 31st of January 2020

Local counterpart

Nhlangano Aids training Information and Counselling Center (NATICC)

Project site

naticc.org.sz



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Project overview
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Family counseling also means to become part of a household, to build trust among the members and between the family and the NATICC team

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Prevention officer during family counseling. The flip-chart helps to write down decisions taken and to define next steps.

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In-house counseling at NATICC: Victims and families receive psychological and legal support.