Child Welfare (Riversdale)

Child Welfare South Africa (CWSA) is an umbrella body representing 164 child welfare affiliates, 30 developing organisations, 25 outreach projects, and 206 communities — collectively reaching about 2 million children, their families and caregivers, with 1,200 staff and 3,500 volunteers.

CWSA is recognised as the largest non-profit organisation in South Africa providing services in the fields of child protection, child care and family development. Their local member organisations each handle the frontline work, including therapeutic services to child survivors of sexual abuse and their families, foster care recruitment and placement, as well as support for abused, abandoned, neglected, orphaned, and vulnerable children.

At the national level, CWSA advocates for a children's rights culture in South Africa, ensures the relevance of national policy and legislation aimed at protecting children, and spearheads national programmes that facilitate community-based services for children through community mobilisation and empowerment of marginalised communities.

One of their flagship projects, Isolabantwana ("Eye on the Child"), focuses on increasing prevention of child abuse and neglect by strengthening systems for identifying and managing children who are victims of various kinds of abuse, neglect and exploitation. It provides a 24-hour response through trained community volunteers authorised to intervene and protect children who are at risk — even over weekends and after hours.