Friends of Child Protection (FCP) have prepared 1 350 comfort packs for victims of sexual assault and rape during the festive season.
The comfort packs will be distributed to SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection, and Sexual Offences (FCS) units linked to police stations in the Western Cape, as well as Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCC) where rape victims are safely housed.
The packing took place at Gardens Presbyterian Church.
“The sad reality is that the crime situation is often a reflection of society,” said Reagan Allen, MEC of police oversight and community safety.
“I am deeply shocked and angered by the latest GBV (gender-based) stats and cases which we have seen and GBV needs to be uprooted, communities need to take a hard look in the mirror because most rape victims are known by the perpetrators.”
According to the crime stats, from July to September there were 1815 sexual offences, with 1233 being rape, 432 for sexual assault, 85 for attempted sexual offences and 65 for contact sexual offences.
Mr Allen says they will put a donation box in their department offices so that people can donate to the FCP.
“We will encourage our officials to make donations because as a society we need to give back. The Friends of Child Protection have done so much in giving and we have engaged with them and we want to ensure that their relationship with SAPS is maintained and that the comfort packs reach the children that need it,” he said.
Another contact crime statistic says that for the rape offences, 164 were liquor-related while 31 were drug-related.
“We have a safety plan in place for the city and the districts and we are trusting that there will be a steady decline when it comes to GBV and murders against our children,” he said.
According to Antonia Zechner, chairperson of FCP, children are frequently told not to file cases against the perpetrators because they are often the family’s breadwinners.
“The children will get the comfort packs but a case won’t be made as it’s a breadwinner that has raped them and without this perpetrator they won’t have money,” said Ms Zechner.
“Even if we can only help one child they must know that someone does care. When people see the children clutching these toys then they are aware of what has happened. The comfort packs are all age appropriate and we are distributing them throughout the province,” she said.
By running the 13 Peaks challenge, Sabine Muller, 57, a physiotherapist from Hout Bay, and her running partner, Vuyo Spamla, 47, a domestic worker in Hout Bay and Camps Bay, raised R160000 for FCP, Moms raise over R160 000 for NGO (November 3, 2022).
“It’s my first time here and this was a huge operation and I saw the work that goes into it, it’s a massive project and its amazing work that these volunteers are doing. I know that the kids will benefit from this,” said Ms Muller.
