Communities have a tremendous influence on the wellbeing of our children.
Our ‘Ke Boikarabelo Jwa Rona’ (Setswana for “It’s our Responsibility”) project sought to improve the response to and prevention of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases through improved service quality and reporting and enhanced community ownership of the Botswana Children’s Act.
SSI conducted research on the preparedness of service providers to handle child sexual abuse and exploitation cases.
As a result, 10 key recommendations, based on modelling, were developed to improve the response to child sexual abuse and prevent this heinous crime in the future. We circulated a petition in Botswana and internationally for people to support change, garnering 21,400 signatures of solidarity.
SSI worked with service providers (police, social workers, health care providers, magistrates and educators) using a scorecard that enabled them to assess their preparedness for handling child sexual abuse cases and develop work plans to improve service delivery.