By Lauren Manuel
On 1 October 94.5 KFM and 567 Cape Talk Breakfast Teams took time out to put comfort packs together for child abuse victims housed by Matla a bana. Matla A Bana is a charity project mobilising a Christian response to address the high incidence of child abuse and rape by implementing appropriate reporting, support and intervention programs. It was initiated and managed by the Callie and Monique Strydom Charity Trust which was founded upon the return of Callie and Monique Strydom after a 4-month hostage ordeal in Southeast Asia. At the end of 2002 Monique Strydom was asked to chair a task team that investigated child rape in South Africa. A need for an organization which could address all the grey areas in the child protection system in South Africa arose and the Strydom Trust undertook to address this need. Matla a Bana is a National organization, with predominant focus in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
Children that have been abused are often very fearful and experience secondary trauma when needing to talk about the experience to police, Matla A Bana tries to reduce that stress by making the child as comfortable as possible. One of the things they do is provide comfort packs with items necessary to take care of the child after the abuse when they report crimes and both breakfast teams helped put together 100 of these packs. Packs contain underwear, soap and wash cloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, colouring books & pencils, a teddy bear, a snack and soft drink. Around 1000 comfort packs need to be prepared each month for abused children in the Western Cape mostly between ages of 6 and 12 years old. Monique Strydom stated that the “comfort packs provided more than just goods, but also helped develop a trust relationship between the victim and police officer which also made disclosure easier.”
As the comfort packs were handed over to the SAPS, Lieutenant Colonel Tia Van de Westhuizen of the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit expressed huge thanks to Shout and Lead SA for allowing more comfort packs to be distributed. She said “It does not matter how hurt a child is, when you tell them that the pack is for them… You have no idea what a difference it makes to them. Even after many years of doing this, I still have to walk away sometimes”.
Some of their other projects include mobilizing faith based groups, creating child-friendly reporting facilities at police stations, training police officers in “soft skills” to equip them to work with children, training doctors in expert forensic medical examinations which leads to more convictions, offering policeman and citizens rewards for going the extra mile to protect South Africa’s children. They also run unique projects to assist churches and schools to write their own child protection protocols.
You can Lead SA by reporting crimes committed against our children by calling 10111, adopting a FCS unit or court in your area, making donations (Matla a Bana’s Website below) and supporting their fundraising projects.
MAB launched 16 Days of Activism with an Police day at Kenmare Laerskool after a request to educate the learners on the importance of the various policing departments and also as a Career! A thousand learners witnessed the police in action! We Salute the police members Fighting crime on a daily basis Serving and Protecting the community and our children.
A well-known Cape Town company, 3D X-act chose to host a year end function with a difference. They hosted a special Christmas event for 28 rape and abuse victims. The children, all between the ages 6 – 12 and all from Mitchells Plain were treated to a wonderful Christmas party, complete with sweets, gifts and Father Christmas.
During late afternoon on 4 December, Matla a Bana, with the assistance of Blue Planet and Roman's Pizza group packed 50 Small comfort packs for girls ages 3-8. Staff volunteers worked with great passion and the packs were done in minutes! These packs were collected by Pta Central, Bronkhorstspruit and Garankuwa FCS units. Bonnie and her team was overwhelmed by the thought of packing these packs for young ages and assured MAB they will sponsor more packs in future! The packing team enjoyed Pizza for supper.. Thanx Roman's Pizza!!
In celebration of 16 Days of No violence against women and children, MAB today opened the Child-Friendly Reporting Facility at the Kraaifontein FCS unit stationed at Kraaifontein Police Station. This facility now has a beautiful outside play area, waiting area and an assessement room linked to a monitoring room. The state-of-the-art audio visual equipement sponsored by Shellard Media now makes recording the interviews possible. During the opening Brigadier Sharon Jeptha said that SAPS need more partners like Matla A Bana.
On Tues, 7 Dec, Matla A Bana hosted it's Annual AGM at Afrique Boutique Hotel in Roodepoort. The event was attended by sponsors, media and officials. Guest speaker, Provincial Commissioner General Petros, said that it "It takes special people to do the type of work Matla a Bana is doing - people with a heart who are willing to get involved in civil society.”
On 9 & 10 November MAB hosted the last Abandoned babby training for 2010. The Vaalrand police stations were nominated and the training was hosted at Bosasa Training facilities. To Suzanne of Big Shoes and her team of experts facilitating we would also like to express our sincere gratitude!
