Botha-Bothe, Apr. 05 — Botha- Bothe District Education Office is planning to celebrate this year’s Children’s Day in style by bringing services closer to children.
Speaking to the Agency today, District Teacher Trainer, Ms. ‘Maseabata Pholoane pointed out that all the other years in celebration of the day, they ran awareness campaigns on child abuse and taught children about their rights while dignitaries make long speeches.
Ms. Pholoane however said this year is going to be different as they plan a different approach.
“This year we would like to bring a different perspective to the celebration. We are going to bring all relevant ministries to the event to offer services to the children. We are going to bring the ministries such as the Ministry of Social Development, Home Affairs, and many others to offer to parents and children.
We are going to do things differently in a way that teachers are going to bring cases of children who need services from different ministries so that those ministries can start offering needed services there,” she said.
Ms. Pholoane also explained that the celebration will take place on April 24 in Botha-Bothe at a venue that is yet to be confirmed even though the country celebrates the day on April 19.
She mentioned that the idea of bringing a different way of celebrating comes after they realised that in a village called Sekubu there are two children that need to be saved from the hands of their parents.
She said there is one child whose mother is mentally retarded but even though she is still able to take care of the child, community members take advantage of the mother’s disability, rape her and take some of the food and belongings from her.
She said they now realise that the child’s life may end up in danger as these criminals will end up raping the child as well since she is a girl. She said the plan is to lay this kind of issue before the relevant ministries as they will know how best to handle the situation.
She further added that there is also another girl who seems to be abused by the mother as teachers are complaining that the child shows symptoms of abuse. She said this kind of story and many others will be heard on the day of the celebration and action will be taken.
Reports show that Children’s Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies from country. In 1925, International Children’s Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare.
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