A two-day workshop held in Sir Lowry’s Pass Village on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 March placed the spotlight on human trafficking, with the aim to train locals on identifying, intervening and preventing incidences.
The workshop, held at the Sir Lowry’s Pass Community Hall, were hosted by the gender-support team of the City of Cape Town’s Social Development and Early Childhood Development (ECD) Department.
It was attended by various stakeholders from Child Welfare South Africa’s Helderberg branch, Somerset West police, ECD centres locally and community workers. They had recently completed the mentorship programme of NPO Building Bridges.
The workshop began with addresses by Ward 84 councillor Norman MacFarlane, keynote speaker Advocate Gary Titus of the
National Prosecuting Authority. The sessions were facilitated by representatives of the Centre Against Sexual Exploitation SA, Freedom Ports Alliance, human trafficking NGO A21 and the provincial Department of Social Development.
Topics covered included the main objectives of the Traffic in Persons Act, national policy framework and court procedures, defining human trafficking, guidelines for the prevention of and response to child exploitation and a briefing on child protection forum functions, the Child Justice Act and procedures with child assessments, the connections among pornography, prostitution and sex trafficking, counter-trafficking, prevention and intervention.
All organisations present, along with the City, are members of the Child Protection Forum, driven by Social Development.
