They say it takes a village to raise a child. With the start of National Child Protection Week, which runs from 31 May until 7 June, our children’s dreams, goals, and aspirations take centre stage.
Affinity Health – providers of affordable health cover for all South Africans – calls on all South African to help keep our children loved, healthy, happy, and safe.
Police statistics of violent crimes against children in our country are grim, and we all know the dangers our youth face daily. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, corporal punishment (including spanking), emotional abuse, and neglect remain a critical challenge facing our society today, despite tremendous efforts to curb this scourge.
Violence is widespread in South African society to the extent that the country has been described as having the highest prevalence of violence and violence-related injury in the world among countries where this is measured.
South Africa also ranks exceptionally high internationally for reported incidents of sexual violence.2 Child abuse occurs across all socio-economic levels, but poverty has been a significant cause of child abuse around the world.
Affinity Health views Child Protection Week as a pivotal opportunity to shine a spotlight on children’s right to healthcare, highlight successes and identify what still needs to be done.
“Children already face so many challenges, and the unprecedented and enormous pressure that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on families and communities across South Africa has made our children even more vulnerable,” says Murray Hewlett, CEO of Affinity Health.
To this effect, Affinity Health has pledged its commitment to ensuring children have access to swift emergency medical response by partnering with iER – a FREE emergency response app available for download and use on an Android, iOS, or HarmonyOS smartphone.
With iER, parents and children can stay connecting to emergency services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In addition, Affinity Health offers all its younger members exciting health benefits in the form of Affinity Junior.
Affinity Health introduced Affinity Junior as a specially designed insurance package to match the healthcare needs of children.
There is day-to-day cover for doctor’s visits to help you cover the everyday costs of staying healthy. Then, the hospital plan is there to offer you and your children access to a wide range of in-hospital features and benefits in the event of an emergency or other hospitalisation.
“As parents, we don’t need to be reminded about the importance of getting our child the very best medical care in the event of an illness, injury, or accident. Affinity Junior is designed to meet these challenges by ensuring that your child’s health needs are always fulfilled, at every stage of their lives,” concludes Hewlett.
For more visit: www.affinityhealth.co.za
