packing comfort for abused children
Friends of Child ProtectionFCP has distributed more than 90214 Comfort Packs throughout the Western Cape since 2006
Getting Involved
Comforting a Child
The STORY
“The little girl was as stiff as a plank, cold and scared. We gave her a Comfort Pack and as we opened it and gave her the toy, she hugged it close to her and slowly began to relax and we were able to speak to her and take her to the hospital” Capt Amanda van Niekerk, Mitchell’s Plain FCS Unit. The four-year-old child in question had been kidnapped that morning. It had rained all day. She had been found, raped and in shock that afternoon behind a bus shelter.
The situation
South Africa is a country rife with violent abuse against women and children. Rapists target ever younger children in an apparent attempt to avoid detection and to avoid HIV/AIDS infection
80% of perpetrators are known to the children and there is currently an extremely low conviction rate
There is Hope
There is hope… with your help we can reach out and help these children – one victim at a time
Get Involved
Friends of Child Protection relies entirely on donations. As we all work on a voluntary basis and keep our costs to a bare minimum we have managed to give between 94% and 100% of our funds to the children.
The number of packs requested always exceeds the number we are able to supply. We need your help to be able to reach every child in need.
Friends of Child Protection (FCP)
Bank Details ABSA (632005) 90 99 49 22 25 Swift ABSA ZA JJ
NPO number: 030-745-NPO PBO number: 930047685
NEWLETTERS – SUBSCRIBE
Apply for a free MySchool card on www.myschool.co.za or click here to download the
Supporter Card Application form and select Friends of Child Protection as your beneficiary.
If you already have a MySchool card, add Friends of Child Protection as your beneficiary.
Every time you shop at Woolies or any of their retail partners, they will donate a % of your
spend to us. Every swipe of your card helps!
Thank you for choosing to invest in the life of a child. It is hard to think of a better way to spend it.
Getting Involved
How You can Help
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Here are some of the ways you can get involved. Scroll down on the page for further detail.
TEDDIES ON A MISSION
Knitting comfort – Patterns for Teddies
VOLUNTEERING
Packing Comfort
SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COMMUNITY GROUPS
Collect money or product or pack comfort packs or collect clothes
DONATIONS
Donations towards Packs
CORPORATES
Corporates like The Royal Foundation – bring your team to help at a pre-pack or a pack or collect money for product or sponsorship etc (Bring cake…)
More about us – Click to play | sound
Tussen ons | flo borchers | comfort packs
FLO BORCHERS:
Friends of Child Protection (FCP) is not just the one face you see on that TV programme-
• it is the sum of years of dedicated, loving and caring service by volunteers on committees
• volunteers shopping and transporting
• volunteers pre-packing and packing
• volunteers donating and praying
• It is those who have donated items in their hundreds and thousands since we started
• loving folk helping with social media, with Information technology
• churches, ministers and congregation
• schools and schoolchildren
• volunteers in many different places knitting the ‘Teddies on a Mission’
• It is also members of our families who have helped and supported us.
Our Services
Service of Blessing – Click to play.
COMFORT PACKS
We pack over 1 200 Comfort Packs every second month and distribute these to all the FCS Units (Family Violence, Child Protection & Sexual Offences Units) in the Western Cape and to Karl Bremer, Victoria, Thuthuzela Centres, Wynberg Children’s Courts and Safeline (Centres for the Treatment and Prevention of Child Abuse in Athlone, Mitchell’s Plein, Delft and Grassy Park).
What Drives Us
Our Mission
FCP focuses on supporting child victims in the first few hours of trauma by giving each child a comfort pack.
Through constant prayer & provision, FCP supports – Child victims of abuse, Specialised police units, Hospitals and other relevant organisations that serve them.
SUBSCRIBE to our newsletters
13 Peak Challenge Raising Funds for FCP
Greeting Friends of Child Protection supporters and volunteers, We promised we would keep you posted about a potential radio interview. Cape Talk reached out to us on Tuesday about Sabine's availability and great news she will be speaking to Pippa just after 2.30 pm...
STITCHING LIVES TOGETHER ONE TEDDY AT A TIME
Excitement as Knysna Knittingales hand over 130 teddy bears to Friends of Child Protection KNYSNA NEWS - About 130 hand-knitted teddy bears went to a worthy cause with great fanfare last week when a group of Knysna knitters completed their annual community project....
1200 children represented in these packets
Get Involved
We need volunteers to help with the sorting of items, packaging them, pre-packing them and then putting the items in the Comfort Packs and preparing them for collection and distribution.
Completing the Comfort Packs takes place at the Gardens Presbyterian Church in Gardens (near the Mount Nelson Hotel). This venue is central and easily accessible to those who come from all parts of the Western Cape to fetch their Comfort Packs.
Enquiries:
Bev Howell: +27 63 783 7344 comfortpacks@
friendsofchildprotection.org.za
Antonia Zechner: +27 71 151 4961
fcp@
friendsofchildprotection.org.za
Packing Comfort
FCP focuses on supporting child victims in the first few hours of trauma by giving each child a Comfort Pack. Comfort Packs are designed to soothe and comfort a child victim of sexual abuse during the time they have to wait at police stations and hospitals for questioning and a traumatic medical examination. The Comfort Packs are given directly to abused children by Doctors/Nurses, Investigating Officers or Social Workers.
For many, these Comfort Packs are the first new items they have ever received, and often the first items that belong entirely to them, even though, in most cases, the toothbrush, facecloth, soap and deodorant are used by the whole family.
We are never given the privilege of meeting the victims but often have feedback from the station commanders, doctors and community workers.
FCP has been a blessing to thousands of children over the past years and would like to continue to be so.
– FCP Committee
“We can do our job when we pick up these kids, but when we give them a Comfort Pack, I don’t know why, but it somehow seems to restore some self respect to them.” – Capt Paul Moss, Nyanga FCS Unit
The Packs are age and gender appropriate and include basic necessities such as underwear and toiletries (sanitary towels, face cloth, soap, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste).
Donate Items for the Comfort Packs. Click here to view what items are in each packet.
Comfort Packs
Teddies on a Mission
Excitement as Knysna Knittingales hand over 130 teddy bears to Friends of Child Protection
KNYSNA NEWS – About 130 hand-knitted teddy bears went to a worthy cause with great fanfare last week when a group of Knysna knitters completed their annual community project.
The avid knitters are residents of the Leisure Gardens retirement village on Leisure Island in Knysna. The youngest knitter is 82 years old while the oldest is 97.
Teddy Pattern – click here
A project for the family, for a class at school, for anyone.
We have come to realize that the emotional benefit of these Packs far exceeds
their physical contents and they have a large impact on the children who receive them.
Learn
This is our Story
HOW WE BEGAN
In 2001, South Africa, and the rest of the world, was shocked by the gang-rape of a nine-month-old baby, Baby Tshepang. Kerrin Marcon, a South African living in London, was one of the people terribly shocked by the news. She visited her family in Cape Town in 2001/2002 and read an article published in the Fair Lady Magazine in January 2002 about the high incidence of child rape in South Africa and about the sorry plight of the Child Protection Units in the Cape. Kerrin, together with her mother and a friend, decided to …read more
TRIBUTE TO FOUNDING MEMBERS
We would like to dedicate this space to pay tribute to two exceptional and talented women who served tirelessly and devotedly since 2002. Women who have left their mark on this charity in so many ways … Read more
The overwhelming majority of our clients are in an acute state of
distress when they present to Simelela for help.
The children often cry and are scared of the unknown.
It is such a joy, relief and great help when the smiles appear on
the client’s faces, when we hand your comfort packs over to them.
It softens the harsh pain and reality that children and parents have to face.
Dr Genine Josias, Simelela Centre
Thank you
There are those who mentored our early years, and got us going
Those selfless people who belong to the FCS Units the Unit Commanders, the investigating officers, the forensic social workers and all the personnel involved
The Doctors and the nurses at the hospitals and Thuthuzela Care Centres, Friends of Thuthuzela,
Those who serve victims and their families from Safeline and
Those who assist the children at the @Wynberg Courts
There are other charities with whom we have been linked and who have also played a role in this worthy cause – Community Chest of the Western Cape, Connect Network, Matla A Bana and more.
There are the suppliers we have been using for years and who all go out of their way to aid us.
There have been generous donations and fund raisers all through the years from so many different countries and areas and those donations enabled us to serve the children in crisis
There have been so many people who have impacted the lives of thousands of children over the years, it is hard to even name them. Please know that you are appreciated, no matter the size of the contribution, each one of you is valued.
Comfort Packs
Corporates
Corporates like The Royal Foundation – bring your team to help at a pre-pack or a pack or collect money for product or sponsorship
Chevron – Human Energy, packing comfort for the children
Community Chest – packing comfort for the children
Comfort Packs
The Big Packs
