J1210N Masizame SA Aspire to Achieve Resilience

The Situation

Violence against children (VAC) in South Africa is all-pervasive. The 2016 Optimus Study, which provided the first national prevalence data on child abuse, violence and neglect, found that 42% of children have experienced some form of violence – including sexual abuse (35%), physical violence (35%), emotional abuse (26%) and neglect (15%). This is echoed in work from a cohort study of young children in South Africa which found that 43% of eight-year-olds had been exposed to violence in their community.

Violence against children is seldom random and socioecological models illustrates how children’s exposure to violence is shaped by a complex interplay of risk and protective factors that include the child’s individual characteristics and

the nature of their relationships, their communities and other factors within South African society.

A South African child living in a home and community characterised by high levels of interpersonal and community violence increases the risk of mental health problems, and of children becoming victims or perpetrators of violence later in life. The majority of South Africa’s children live in townships, informal settlements and deep rural areas of the country where high levels of unemployment, poverty and food insecurity, coupled with overcrowding and inadequate infrastructure, policing and social services, increase the risk of interpersonal and gang violence and crime. Violence exposure and mental health problems share many of the same risk and protective factors.

The Garden Route / Eden District unemployment rate of 28.9% in the highest in the Province. More than 25 years into democracy, South Africa remains the most unequal country in the world, and the link between inequality and levels of crime in a society are true in South Africa as well as globally. Poverty increases stress and tension in the home and compromises families’ mental health and capacity to care, prot