Child Helpline Not Toll-Free

The high patronage of the Child Helpline project, which was piloted in the country in September 2007, has suffered a decline.

This follows the realisation by children that they were being charged for the calls they made, contrary to the understanding that the calls would be free of charge.

A source at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) told the Junior Graphic that between September and October 2007, 18 people, made up of seven children and 11 women, called to lodge complaints.

It said between November and December, however, no child called the line, with only nine adults calling, while 10 people called the line between January and August 2008.

In October 2007, the Junior Graphic reported that a toll-free helpline to promote the rights, survival and protection of women and children had been launched.

The MTN toll free number – 1622 – was to enable women and children to give information or lodge complaints about issues concerning them for the necessary action to be taken.

Assault cases topped the list of complaints, followed by harassment and failure to name a child. Others were the exposure of children to harmful practices and hazardous working conditions.

The source explained that the first two months were encouraging because children did not know that the service provider was deducting units for the calls they made.

The source explained that “the helpline was to be toll-free to encourage children to patronise the service and provide vital information on issues affecting them. Unfortunately, it is not so.”

“And since the line provided could only receive calls, we could not call back when we wanted to follow up on certain cases,” it said.

The source, however, explained that DOVVSU had been holding meetings with the Department of Children of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and was hopeful that before the end of the year some of the problems the Helpline project was encountering, particularly making the calls free, would be resolved.

It said the meetings were also exploring the possibility of using other service providers such as Onetouch, TiGO and Kasapa to increase the number of lines and make them more accessible.

The source stressed that in order to get the children to patronise the facility, it was important that the service was made free, as is the case in other countries that operate such lines.

Story by Severious Kale Dery