This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you consent to our use of cookies. Close

Africa Legal

Africa Legal

  • NEWS
  • JOBS
  • COURSES
  • CLIENTS
    • Sign in
    • Sign up
  • NEWS
  • COURSES
  • JOBS
    • Sign In
    • Sign Up
  • News
  • Courses
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Business A-Z
  • Post a job
  • Contact Us
  • Clients
CLIENT SIGN IN
Country
  • Uganda
  • South Africa
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Cameroon
  • United Kingdom
  • Cote d'Ivoire
  • Ghana
  • Tanzania
  • Zambia
  • Botswana
  • Morocco
  • Zimbabwe
  • Mauritius
  • Mozambique
  • Sudan
  • Rwanda
  • Ethiopia
  • Angola
  • Egypt
  • Togo
  • Mali
  • South Sudan
  • Swaziland
  • Senegal
  • Malawi
  • France
  • Guinea
  • Middle East
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Gambia
  • Sierra Leone
  • Germany
Category
  • Profiles
  • Analysis & Opinion
  • Career advice
  • In-house
  • Latest news
  • Press releases
  • Africa Legal Blog
  • Women in Law
  • Innovation
  • Human Rights
Practice area
  • Agriculture
  • Arbitration
  • Aviation
  • Banking and Finance
  • Capital markets
  • Charties and pro bono
  • Company commercial
  • Competition and antitrust
  • Construction and engineering
  • Consumer products
  • Corporate finance and M&A
  • Criminal
  • Education
  • Employment and benefits
  • Energy and natural resources
  • Environmental
  • Financial services
  • Fraud & white collar crime
  • Funds
  • Governance | risk and compliance
  • Government and public sector
  • Health and safety
  • Healthcare and pharmaceuticals
  • Insurance/Reinsurance
  • Intellectual Property
  • Litigation and dispute resolution
  • Logistics and transportation
  • Manufacturing and Industrial
  • Private client and family
  • Private equity
  • Projects and infrastructure
  • Real estate
  • Regulatory
  • Restructuring | insolvency and debt recovery
  • Shipping and maritime
  • Taxation
  • Technology media and telecoms
  • Travel and tourism
close

Registration

Registered Successfully!!!. We have sent you a confirmation email to your email address.
close


View My Saved News


close You must login to save your news
  • LOGIN
  • NEW USER

Login to your account

Forgotten your password?
or

Create an Account

close


View My Saved News


« Back

Channelling Lawyers’ Power

Save the Children was the chosen charity for the African Legal Awards. That lawyers have been asked to focus on its work is because this is a profession that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable. Bernadette Wicks attended the event in Johannesburg.

Sep 09, 2019
Bernadette Wicks
Share

Nyika Machendjedze , project manager for Children on the Move, pictured at the Nosa Early Learning Centre in Winterveld.

Last year, Hopeful Sithole* completed his matric with four distinctions. It is an achievement that anyone would be proud of but for Sithole, a child migrant who fled Zimbabwe for South Africa when he was 13-years-old, it is an especially remarkable accomplishment and one which he says would not have been possible without the intervention of Save the Children.

Sithole is a product of the ‘Children on the Move’ project which works to ensure that unencumbered, separated migrant children have access to the basic and protective services that all children are entitled to.

Just months before he was meant to write his final matric exams, Sithole was told he would not be able to sit because he did not have the necessary documentation. In the three months that followed, he was barred from the school premises, his hopes of completing his schooling all but dashed. Then, mere weeks before the start of the exams, he was told that he would, in fact, be allowed to write and was granted permission to return to school.

“I only learnt later that it was Save The Children that had been fighting my battles for me, behind the scenes,” he said, when he took to the podium to share his story at this year’s African Legal Awards, of which Save the Children was the charity partner.

He said he owed the organisation everything that he had achieved in his life.

Save the Children is rooted in the belief that “every child deserves a future and their lives, voices and future potential should be fiercely protected at all costs”.

The organisation’s work is aimed at ensuring that children from across the board are able to enjoy their rights to survival, protection, development and participation.

Nyika Machendjedze is the project manager for Children on the Move and he, too, spoke at the awards.

“There can never be a better time to speak about the protection of migrant children in South Africa than this moment,” he said, referencing the wave of xenophobic violence that has swept through the country in recent weeks.

“Although, the law says that every child in South Africa has the right to education, it is not that simple and there are heavy costs attached to a migrant child’s access to - what would otherwise be free - public services,” Machenjedze explained, “There are no systems or structures to protect migrant children from ill practices, such as child labour, and these children - who do not benefit from social protection systems - are often forced to engage in casual work, which exposes them to exploitation with limited recorse”.

Save the Children aims to ensure the welfare of these vulnerable children is protected by supporting the centres that take care of them as well as community-based education centres.

The organisation will also soon be starting a programme which strives to equip migrant children who do not have access to the formal education system, with alternative skills; and to create an avenue for skills development for these children.

“Many of our beneficiaries are now in university, studying towards their future careers, despite the difficulties that they have faced,” Machenjedze said at the awards.

Sithole is one of them. He is now in his first year of studies at the University of Limpopo studies towards Bachelor of Computer Science, a qualification he got a merit bursary to study. 

“Save the Children has fueled my academics, my life and my goals,” he says, “The ball is now in my court. I believe I will not disappoint. I believe a great future awaits me”.

Africa Legal invites it’s community to offer support and essential legal skills to the Children on the Move project.  To offer your assistance please contact Dianne McAlpine here 

 *A pseudonym has been used to protect Sithole’s true identity



Copyright : Re-publication of this article is authorised only in the following circumstances; the writer and Africa Legal are both recognised as the author and the website address www.africa-legal.com and original article link are back linked. A bio for the writer can be provided on request.

RELATED CATEGORY NEWS

No prescription on human rights violat Read more
Lawyers under attack Read more
Reparations for Kenya’s forest dwellers Read more

RELATED COUNTRY NEWS

Hogan Lovells bolsters SA practice Read more
Two years of WMN striding ahead Read more
Niche firms with elephant-sized impact Read more
Africa Legal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy and cookies policy
Members
  • Find a job
  • Take a course
  • Read news
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cancellations and refunds
Clients
  • Terms and conditions
  • Post a job
  • Host a course
  • Advertise
  • Share news
Connect with us
© Copyright 2023 | Africa Legal. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy