Groot Marico Child Protection Hotline

The Child Protection Hotline operates as telephonic-only, community-level reporting points via childprotectionhotline.co.za, each staffed by a call centre counsellor. These are distinct from the national Childline 116 service, though they serve a similar first-response function.

Trained counsellors on child protection hotlines provide support, information and appropriate intervention including risk assessment, in the preferred language of the caller, on issues such as the physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect of children; adult survivors of abuse; perpetrators of abuse and sexual offenders; trafficking, abduction and commercial sexual exploitation of children; exposure and witness to domestic and criminal violence; and substance abuse.

The critical role these hotlines play is as a first point of contact and referral gateway — particularly in under-served communities where access to in-person services is limited. All reported incidents of physical or mental neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, abandonment, ill-treatment or harmful living conditions are investigated and responded to, with social workers intervening to build family capacity and protect children from removal — always with the best interest of the child as priority.