Materials and Resources
Websites hosted by us
Welcome to the RAPCAN website!
RAPCAN (Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) works to promote the rights and protection of children in South Africa and the region.
RAPCAN delivers direct services to children and families, aimed at promoting the rights and protection of children. We also undertake training and develop resource materials with a view to strengthening the quality of work undertaken by others in relation to children and families. Our advocacy work is aimed at ensuring that legislation, policy and practice are consonant with the international children’s rights framework.
NEWS... RAPCAN celebrates 20 years of promoting children's rights!
The work of RAPCAN is being covered in the Mail & Guardian of 20 November 2009 (pages 25-26) and commemorates this special event.
These articles share an overview of our work.
Taking over the reigns
Engaging the process
Getting schools on the team
Protecting the children
NEWS... RAPCAN launches Youth @ Risk newsletter
The RAPCAN Training and Resource Development Team would like to welcome you to our newsletter, Youth @ Risk, aimed at practitioners working in the Youth at Risk field. Youth at Risk is one of our Team’s areas of interest and we strive to develop cutting-edge resources and training programmes.
Vol 1 Issue 3 supplements:
1. Guidelines for Programme Design (PDF)
2. Questions when Designing Youth at Risk Interventions (PDF)
3. Risk and Resilience (PDF)
NEWS... World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse - 19 November
Alerting governments and civil society organizations to play a more active role in the promotion of and respect for the rights of the child (article 19 and 34 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child), and contribute to the prevention of child abuse, Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) launched in 2000 the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse, to be commemorated annually on 19 November in synergy with the anniversary of the International Day for the Rights of the Child (20 November) which has as its objective to be a rallying point around the issue of child abuse and the need for urgent effective prevention programmes.
NEWS... RAPCAN launches Working with Boys newsletter
RAPCAN’s interest in working with boys has developed over a number of years and has seen the organisation host a number of seminars on working with boys. Whilst the arena of working with men as part of a gender violence prevention strategy has shown significant gains, our experience has been that very few organisations engage with young boys in the same way. We hope that this newsletter will create a platform for meaningful discussion, information sharing and debate to enable us to work with boys on their journey to becoming meaningful, resilient and positive contributors to their community.
NEWS... RAPCAN launches Corporal Punishment/Positive Discipline websites
The Working Group on Positive Discipline is a network of South African organisations working in various ways to prevent and address child abuse and neglect, and ensure the protection of the rights of children. The Working Group has a particular emphasis on the promotion of positive parenting and non-violent discipline, and is committed to the abolition of corporal and all other forms of humiliating punishment of children.
The Regional Network on Corporal Punishment is a network of Southern African organisations working independently in various ways to prevent and address child abuse and neglect, and ensure the protection of the rights of children in their own countries.
NEWS... GlobalGiving and RAPCAN: Helping children heal in South Africa
RAPCAN participated during April 2009 in a global project challenge to secure a permanent place on GlobalGiving’s website. GlobalGiving enables individuals and companies to find and support high-impact, grassroots development projects world-wide.
RAPCAN’s project attempted during April to raise £1,000 from 50 separate donors with donations from £5 to secure a permanent website listing. This would have allowed us the opportunity to fundraise globally for our work over the long term. Our project facilitates the healing process for sexually abused children by providing training and material resources for those working with the children.
We thank you for your support in trying to help us achieve our target.
PRESS RELEASE... Report on SAPS FCS services released: Assessing the impact of restructuring on access to and quality of services to women and children in South Africa
SAPS announced their plans to restructure Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offence (FCS) units in 2006. The main objective was to increase accessibility through disbanding existing specialised Child Protection and FCS units and devolving the service to local police stations. Members of civil society supported the intention of increasing access to services, but expressed grave concerns that devolving these sensitive investigations to station-level would result in undermining the quality of services.
Raising the Bar: A Review of the Restructuring of the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units
Press Release (PDF)
Executive Summary (PDF)
Full text report (PDF)