This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(February 2014) |
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Formation | 1986 |
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Purpose |
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Headquarters | 24 Essenwood Road, Durban, South Africa |
Region served | South Africa |
National Executive Director | Dumisile Nala [1] |
Website | www |
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. [2] Childline runs a national, 24-hour, toll-free telephone counselling service for children and adults, handling over 1 million calls annually. [3] [4] In addition to the Crisis Line telephone counseling service, Childline also offers services such as online counseling, training programmes for continuous professional development, training on court preparation and workshops on child law. [5] [6]
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. [4] 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. [7] [8] [9] Counsellors are trained to deal with a wide variety of issues. [4] [10]
Childline offered a free, online counselling service through the discontinued Mxit instant messaging application which was available to youth under the age of 21 years, as well as to adults with concerns about children. [11] [12] Initially trialled as a pilot project in 2009, the service quickly saw thousands of young people making use of it to seek help. [13] Chat rooms were staffed by trained counselors based at the Childline national office in Durban, and were operational Monday to Saturday, from 2 pm to 6 pm. [12] Conversations between children and counsellors were strictly confidential and were conducted on a one-on-one basis, which allowed children to seek assistance on topics they would have ordinarily found difficult to discuss. [14] [15] Children who required face-to-face services may have been referred to their closest regional office for further counselling. [12]
Google is partnered with Childline in promoting online safety for children through its online child safety campaign, launched on 1 June 2012. [16] [17] The partnership is intended to facilitate the co-ordination of work done by government, industry and civil society. [18] 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. [19]
The 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 [20] and is associated with ISPCAN training and international congresses, having assisted in the organisation of the ISPCAN International Congress held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in 2008 in Durban. [21] Childline has also had numerous papers accepted for presentation at the ISPCAN International Congresses, held every two years. [22] 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 organisation. [23] [24]
Child Helpline International (CHI) is a global network of 173 child helplines in 142 countries. [25] [26] 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. [22] Childline is partnered with Child Helpline International, and hosted the CHI Sixth International Consultation in 2012 in Durban. [22] [27]
Childline is primarily funded by ad hoc donations from corporations and government parastatals. [28] 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. [29] [30] [ non-primary source needed ]
Telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa provides modern and efficient service to urban areas, including cellular and internet services. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is the watchdog of the telecommunications in the country.
Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, often through its telephone helpline. Its name derives from the biblical Parable of the Good Samaritan, although the organisation itself is not religious.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity founded as the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC) by Thomas Agnew on 19 April 1883. The NSPCC lobbies the government on issues relating to child welfare, and creates child abuse public awareness campaigns. Since the 1980s, the charity has had statutory powers allowing it to apply for help on behalf of children at risk. In the 1990s, the charity's publication, Satanic Indicators, fueled panic in social workers who went and accused parents and removed children from homes when they should not have. It operates a help line. The Paddington Bear character has partnered with the charity to raise funds for the charity. NSPCC operates telephone helplines.
Childline is a British counselling service for children and young people aged up to 18 in the United Kingdom provided by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. They deal with any issues which cause distress or concern; some of the most common issues include child abuse, bullying, mental illness, parental separation and or divorce, teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, neglect, and psychological abuse.
Dame Esther Louise Rantzen is an English journalist and television presenter, who presented the BBC television series That's Life! for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes and founded the charities Childline, a helpline for children, which she set up in 1986, and The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness in older people's lives, which she set up in November 2012.
Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority state-owned (55.3%) with the South African government owning 40.5% of Telkom, while another 14.8% is owned by another state-owned company - the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is closely linked to the South African government.
A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers. The first such service was founded in England in 1951 and such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the English speaking world at least since the mid-1970s. Initially set up to help those contemplating suicide, many have expanded their mandate to deal more generally with emotional crises. Similar hotlines operate to help people in other circumstances, including rape, bullying, self-harm, runaway children, human trafficking, and people who identify as LGBT or intersex. Despite crisis hotlines being common, their effectiveness in reducing suicides is not clear.
The Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) is an Australian organisation interested in the promotion of breastfeeding and protection of nursing mothers. Members of ABA include nursing mothers and their partners as well as health professionals such as doctors, lactation consultants and midwives.
Damelin is a private college founded in 1943 by Benjamin Damelin. It has 6 campuses in South Africa and is owned by Educor group. Damelin offers degrees, diplomas and other higher qualifications, but is considered a college instead of a university due to the regulations for tertiary institutions in South Africa. Damelin is the oldest and most profitable education subsidiary owned by Educor. By November 2012, over one million students had graduated from Damelin.
Missing People is a national organisation in the United Kingdom that offers assistance to people who run away and/or go missing and their families. It is a registered charity under English law.
A helpline, or switchboard, is a telephone service which offers help to those who call. Many helpline services now offer more than telephone support - offering access to information, advice or customer service via telephone, email, web or SMS. The word hotline is also sometimes used to refer to a helpline. A helpline can provide emotional support to a person in distress in its minimalistic form. It may help the individual.
Sir Ian Bruce Hassall was a New Zealand paediatrician and children's advocate. He was New Zealand's first Commissioner for Children from 1989 to 1994. His career entailed working for children and their families as clinician, strategist, researcher and advocate. He was awarded the Aldo Farina Award by UNICEF in 2010 for his dedication to improving child welfare.
Kids Helpline is a free Australian telephone and online counselling service for young people aged between 5 and 25. Counsellors respond to more than 6,000 calls each week about issues ranging from relationship breakdown and bullying to sexual abuse, homelessness, suicidal thoughts, depression and drug and alcohol usage.
The Internet in South Africa, one of the most technologically resourced countries on the African continent, is expanding. The internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .za is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (.ZADNA) and was granted to South Africa by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1990. Over 60% of Internet traffic generated on the African continent originates from South Africa. As of 2020, 41.5 million people were Internet users.
A harmonised service of social value is a type of freephone service available in the European Union and in some non-EU countries, which answers a specific social need, in particular which contributes to the well-being or safety of citizens, or particular groups of citizens, or helps citizens in difficulty. The phone numbers and the corresponding service descriptions are managed by the European Commission and harmonised across all EU and EEA member states. Harmonised services of social value use the prefix 116, which is then followed by three digits indicating the type of service.
Founded in 1977, the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) is a multidisciplinary international organization that aims to prevent and treat child abuse, neglect and exploitation globally. It organizes the International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, the largest conference in the world about child abuse.
CHILDLINE 1098 is a service of Ministry of Women and Child Development. Childline India Foundation is a non-government organisation (NGO) in India that operates a telephone helpline called Childline, for children in distress. It was India's first 24-hour, toll free, phone outreach service for children. Childline 1098 service is available all over India. It is available in 602+ districts, 144+ railway stations and 11 bus terminals have Child Help Desks.
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