GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - "It starts with the children."

This was the message Dr Chandré Gould, senior research fellow at the Institute for Security Studies, conveyed during the anti-crime summit at the George civic centre this week.

"If we are to turn the tide on violent crime, we have to change what we are doing. We have to listen to the evidence that tells us that we have to do things that are going to protect children from harm and prevent them from becoming the next generation of victims and perpetrators.

"That is going to take us working together as local government, provincial government, academics, and NGOs. Not one of these can do it alone," she said during her presentation.

Gould, who is also involved with the Seven Passes Initiative in Touwsranten, gave various examples of how they have assisted children and families in the Touwsranten community (in the Hoekwil area) and the results they achieved.

"Twenty young people who progressed through our programmes have attended tertiary education. Two of these young people have returned to Touwsranten from university with degrees. One is a teacher in the local school and chair of the board of Seven Passes (a rural youth development project)," she said.

According to Gould, children who are born in a violent and unprotected community, or children who are born into families or communities where drugs and alcohol take priority, are highly unlikely to be well-adjusted children.

What inclines children toward violence and crime?
Gould said children who are constantly exposed to conflict, trauma, violence and abuse (including emotional abuse), children who endure harsh physical punishment and neglect, whose parents are absent or in prison, those who are bullied at school and eventually drop out - those are the children who will more than likely turn to drugs, alcohol and eventually violence and crime.

"We have an opportunity in this district [to help children not becoming victims and perpetrators]; we have organisations with knowledge and experience who know how to do this. We have some of the best community policing forums in the country, we have a dedicated top cop in the province and in our cluster - let's not waste this chance we have to show the country and the world what we can do."

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