SEARCH RESULTS

A common question at the start of any meeting these days is “where has the year gone?” It is quite normal, I find, to lament the fast-paced passing of time around mid-Winter, but 2020 has been extraordinarily different, for many obvious and not so obvious reasons.

Around 10 million children may never return to school – this is an unprecedented education emergency and governments must urgently invest in learning.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has forced the world’s schools to shut their doors to over a billion children. For the first time in human history, an entire generation has had their education disrupted.

When we set out at the beginning of March to discuss the implications of the impending COVID-19 crisis on our operations and how this will affect children, we had a very narrow view of the future. Like everyone else we were waiting for the storm to blow over. Little did we know how this would change the way that we work and most importantly the way that children experience the world.

Save the Children South Africa (SCSA) is horrified by the reports of the rape of a two-year-old child at the George Mukhari Hospital, in Pretoria. The mother of the child left her at the hospital after she was reportedly told that the child needed to be isolated as it was suspected she had COVID-19.

A child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child, as mentioned in the South African constitution. The United Nation Convention on the Right of child (UNCRC) further states that “States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures”.

The importance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) is undisputed as a critical time for the rapid development of cognitive, physical, socio-emotional and language skills in young children.

With fewer companies reported increased corporate social investment (CSI) expenditure in 2019, charity organisations are forced to think about various ways of tapping into different expenditure lines of corporations in order to sustain their projects.

This Sunday was Father’s Day, and, like many other families, we have a tradition in our house in which my wife and daughter make me breakfast in bed. However, this Sunday I first had to do a TV interview about child murder. I work at Save the Children, and this is part of my job.