CHILD WITNESS TRAINING COURSE 21 - 25 June 2004
The Unit for Child Witness Research and Training has recently completed a successful five day training course for investigating officers and constables in Nelspruit. The Unit, well known for its specialised training courses for sexual offence cases, presented the course for the first time to 'ground level' police officers.
What was very fascinating to the Unit members, Prof Karen Muller and Karen Hollely, was the overwhelming hunger these brave and dedicated service providers had for this information. The Unit members have found that it is important to train ALL personnel dealing with these cases, whether or not they are specialised Units, such as the Family Violence and Child Protection Unit.
The participants of this training course deal, on an ongoing basis, with initial disclosures of abuse and reporting thereof. For this reason, GRIP facilitated and funded this course for this group.
The participants showed an unending enthusiasm for the information provided over the five days, despite the fact that they had to attend from 8h00 to 17h00 each day. Although their energy levels and capacity to absorb the amount of information provided must have been stretched to the limit, these dedicated men and women continuously completed the required activities, and asked a multitude of relevant questions, keeping the presenters on their toes!
The Unit for Child Witness Program also commented that the Lowveld is the only area where all roleplayers have been trained. The Lowveld is now the most fully trained area in all South Africa. GRIP has facilitated the course for Social Workers, the Child Protection Unit for Mpumalanga, all Grip's staff and the Masisukumeni Woman's Group. The same course has been presented to the magistrates and prosecutors.
GRIP was selected as the pilot program for the UNIT of Child Witness Program by the Department of Justice. GRIP will be paving the way for the rest of South Africa to follow in their highly researched, workable pre-court preparation program. GRIP is extremely proud that their original pre-court programme was recognised as the most workable by the Justice Department and that they have been given the opportunity to pilot the new national program.
The Lowveld can only go from strength to strength in helping the growing number of children and adult abuse survivors. This training encompasses sexual assault and all the types of trauma associated when reporting cases to the Police. The roleplayers and stakeholders in our community are trained and ready to offer the community we serve unique, compassionate attention.
