We announce the launch of ‘Ten days of activism of the Child Support Grant’ during 10- 21 October 2008!

Black Sash, ACESS and other partners are launching ‘Ten days of activism of the Child Support Grant’ to persuade government to extend the child support grant to age 18.

As you know, our Constitution gives children special protection. It puts the responsibility on the Government to provide social assistance to children whose parents or caregivers are not able to provide for them. Our government in particular the Ministry of Finance implements this mandate by setting aside some money in the budget for a Child Support Grant (CSG) for children who qualify for this financial support. 

But at the moment, the grant is only available to children up to the age of 14 (to be extended to children up to the age of 15 in January 2009). This means that more than 2 million needy youngsters between the ages of 15-18 don't get any help at all! 
Many of these teenagers don't have money for school fees or even a nutritious daily meal, and often end up dropping out of school at 14. This just increases their chances of being condemned to a life of poverty.   

Part of ‘Ten days of activism of the Child Support Grant’ includes the handing over of a petition to extend the Child Support Grant to 18 to government on the 21 October, the day the government announces the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

The Black Sash and ACESS and others are busy gathering signatures for our petition.

See also: the work of the Forum on Orphans and Vulnerable Children

The symbol for the ‘Ten days of activism of the Child Support Grant’ is a yellow balloon. This will be used as an awareness creation tool during the ten days of activism.

We encourage all organizations who support the campaign to:

Put  yellow balloons outside their offices from the 10th October; sign the petition; join one of the demonstrations planned; write to your local paper explaining the campaign, and asking for local  support; come to the hand over of the petition to the Ministry of Finance on the 21st!

We will be having three demonstrations in the run up to the hand over of the petition:

• 15th October: Women for the child support  grant! From 10 until 2pm on the steps of St Mary’s Cathedral in Cape  Town.  
• 17th October: Lawyers for the child support  grant! From 12 until 1pm outside the High Court in Cape  Town  
• 20th October: Faith Based organisations for  the child support grant! From 12 to 1pm on the steps of St George’s Cathedral. 

Please feel free to join us in making a stand for children.
 
Your support for the ‘Ten days of activism for the Child Support Grant’ will help realise the constitutional rights of all our children.

For more information call
Black Sash at 021 4617804  and ACESS at 021 7610117

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