In a country which faces serious challenges in combating child abuse, RAPCAN focuses on the prevention of child abuse and neglect and the promotion of children’s rights. It works at a local, provincial and national level in South Africa and in the south
In 2001, RAPCAN established a new programme to support child witnesses. The programme provides services to child victims of sexual offences testifying in court proceedings. The service is based in the courts and is designed to reduce the levels of trauma experienced by children giving evidence. This includes ensuring that children are properly fed, that they are prepared for testimony in court and that they receive therapeutic follow-up services. It also goes beyond this by ensuring that the room in which the child is received is clean and calming, that court officials are trained and understand the needs of children, and that further harm to the child is prevented by including family members in the scheme. RAPCAN makes extensive use of trained lay counsellors to provide direct services under the supervision of qualified social workers.
In 2006 alone, 6,800 children benefited from these services across six court sites around Cape Town.
In order to act as a resource to other organisations, and increase access to and quality of services, RAPCAN has developed the Child Witness Support Toolkit to enable other organisations to establish similar services elsewhere. The toolkit comprises of training materials, a procedures manual, a costing instrument and minimum standards guidelines. Organisations can also avail of training and technical support from RAPCAN.
In response to a significant shortage of trained professionals in dealing with child sexual abuse, RAPCAN has also developed the Healers Package to enable non-professionals to take sexually abused children through a therapeutic process of healing.
In November 2007, RAPCAN became the first recipient of the 2007 STARS Impact Award (http://www.starsfoundation.org.uk/recipients07.php) in the category of Protection.
The Awards are given by the STARS Foundation (www.starsfoundation.org.uk), a London-based charitable foundation which works to improve the lives of disadvantaged children around the world. The annual Awards recognise three organisations operating in the fields of health, education and protection which have the greatest impact on the lives of children through their commitment to good practice. Each recipient of the award receives US$100,000 in unrestricted funding as well as consultancy support.
RAPCAN will be 20 years old in 2009. One of the chief concerns of the organisation at the current time is to assure its continued existence and service delivery to the community for another 20 years. During its long history, the organisation has managed to spend funds on the delivery of its services, yet was not able to focus enough energy or investment on ensuring that internal systems kept pace with its growth.
Since RAPCAN received the Award, it has been able to focus on building a reserve fund, as well as strengthening the internal physical structure and IT infrastructure of the organisation.
The STARS Impact Award has provided RAPCAN with a core of financial stability which will continue to be built upon by the organisation through other income-generating activities.
The amount obtained through the award is significant enough in order to encourage other donors to also make contributions to this endeavour. In fact, the STARS Award has significantly increased RAPCAN’s public profile, especially in the period directly after the award. Between November 2007 and January 2008, the organisation continued to receive attention especially of government departments in the country, particularly from both the National and Provincial offices of the Department of Justice, which is RAPCAN’s most important collaborator in providing services to child victims.
Current challenges and overcoming them
There is evidence to demonstrate that South Africa has some of the highest rates of rape, indecent assault and child victimisation. There is also evidence from South Africa’s Medical Research Council that its reported rate of baby rape is the highest in the world. Separate victimisation surveys that have been carried out in relation to adults and children and provide clear evidence that children are victimised at twice the incident rate of adults in relation to general crime and violence.
The work that RAPCAN propose to continue will effect change as it seeks to offer a comprehensive approach to the prevention and management of child sexual abuse. Within the two areas of prevention and management, the organisation offers interventions that are evidence-based and that also seek to be comprehensive.
What they envision to achieve over the next few years
RAPCAN’s work with children, as well as with adults, will continue to remain a priority as it grows to create resources that will reinforce and extend its interventions. This will ensure its survival so that it may face the challenges of child victimisation for the next 20 years.
It makes sense, then, that RAPCAN’s main intention is to strengthen its core by capacity-building for sustainability, in order that it is able to continue its work into the future.
