The Cape Town Museum of Childhood in partnership with the Centre for Early Childhood Development, made a statement outside the Company’s Garden on Thursday November 21, using news posters with headlines describing violence against children.
The statement was part of Infecting the City, a public art festival which took place all over the city last week.
Organisations from across the city, including early childhood development and community representatives, stood along Wale Street with news posters collected from poles in the streets.
Some of the posters read: “Bontas worst child rape”; Toddler rescued from tikhuis”; and “Scum shoot 9 month baby”.
Chanel Fredericks, the outreach programme manager at The Cape Town Museum of Childhood, said the collection of posters was to put the problem in peoples’ faces and urge them to think about what they can do to create a safe environment for the children of South Africa.
She said her colleague, Sarah Atmore, from Rondebosch, had collected the posters since December last year, and they decided to use the posters for the demonstration. Ms Atmore said while she was driving one day, she saw a poster about an assault of a teen, which stuck with her.
“We see all these posters daily, but we never register what is going on. So I decided to jump out of the car and grab it, and I’ve been doing it ever since”
She said the intention was to put all the posters together and create a big exhibition to make people think about the trauma that children face daily, and also think of what needs to be done to change the situation.
She said up to now, she had collected over 150 posters, “and this is just a drop in the ocean of what goes on everyday”.
The director of the Centre for Early Childhood Development, Professor Eric Atmore, said they aimed to highlight what goes on in communities because after people drive away from the poster, they forget about it and have little time to reflect.
“This is to say that we must protect our young children and ensure their futures.”
He said the centre will launch an ongoing campaign to “eradicate” violence against children.
Mouroodah Theunissen from Bonteheuwel came out to support the cause.
“We are here for the sake of our children and women, so that they can be protected and safe. We believe we should do more of these demonstrations in our communities, to show people we are serious about this,” she said.
