violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

South Africa’s Thuthuzela Care Centres:integrated services for victims of sexual violence328Violence against children in the communityThuthuzela Care Centres provide a ‘one-stop’ integrated response to the high rates ofsexual violence against women and children in South Africa, and are increasingly heldup as examples of good practice. The Thuthuzela model – the word means ‘comfort’ inXhosa – aims to reduce secondary trauma for the victim (i.e. due to police, legal, medicalor other responses), improve perpetrator conviction rates and reduce the lead timefor finalising cases. Its integrated approach to care of rape victimes is one of respect,comfort, restoring dignity on the one hand, and ensuring justice on the other. Victimswho arrive at police stations are no longer required to make statements until they aretransported to the Thuthuzela Centre by specially-trained ambulance staff, where theyare examined by doctors and nurses, receive counselling and are given the opportunityto bath or shower. Then, and only if she is ready, does the victim make a statement.Afterwards she is given transportation home, and a variety of follow-up services arealso offered including HIV testing.The Thuthuzelas are located in public hospitals in communities where the incidenceof rape is particularly high, and work closely with nearby specialised Sexual OffencesCourts staffed by prosecutors, social workers, investigating officers, magistrates, healthprofessionals and police. Although subject to funding difficulties, the centres are makingefforts to become more ‘child-friendly’ with tools such as posters, drawings, and anatomicallycorrect dolls to help prepare children to appear in court, should that becomenecessary. 241 Thuthuzela has improved the process of reporting and prosecuting rape andother sexual offences, and offender conviction rates are increasing. The Government ofSouth Africa is working to scale-up this model to a planned 80 centres by 2010. 242Reporting services. Reporting systems thatare not only available, but accessible to childrenand young people, can be a critical part ofa comprehensive approach to protecting children.Protecting confidentiality and providinga high-quality service are also important. Suchsystems can also provide access or referral, in acoordinated way, to trained professionals andreferral to social workers, or health professionals,or law enforcement, as needed.An increasingly popular mechanism for communitysettings is the child helpline, a phoneservice that links children in need of care andprotection to services and resources. In 2003, itis estimated that about 11.3 million calls weremade to child helplines during that year. Children’sreasons for calling included requests forcrisis intervention, rehabilitation, counsellingor just needing someone to talk to. Approximately9% of the calls were related to abuse