31 Jan 2022

It is important for organisations working with children and young people to have safeguarding policies and procedures to respond to child protection concerns.

Sport Management Agency (SMA) director, Game Mothibi,  made the call during a training session on safeguarding for organisational focal point persons.

She said safeguarding was aimed at keeping everyone safe from harm, abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect as well as ensuring that participation in sport had a positive experience.

“So, from here you need to educate all stakeholders, coaches and athletes about their rights and how they protect their rights,” she said.

Mothibi said she was aware that already there was a safesport organisation in Botswana and the safeguarding programme would complement it.

She said the programme was for all organisations in sport and its purpose was to safeguard all in sport, including vulnerable adults and children.

She said statistics showed that most victims of sexual abuse in sport were young female athletes and a large proportion of boys were also victimised.

“Researchers have indicated that young people who had been sexually abused in the context of sport often have low self-esteem, strained relationships with their parents and eating disorder,” she said.

The training was sponsored by Africa Women Development Fund (AWDF) and Mothibi said together with Mentoring and Empowerment Programme for Young Women-Uganda, they received P1 million to conduct safeguarding programmes in their countries.

“But we are only taking 39.5 per-cent of the money while Uganda takes the rest.  The issue here is to train people who can safeguard in our sport,” Mothibi said.

She said they should also be able to implement the practices and policies, and share experiences regarding challenges that hinder safeguarding in Botswana sport. BOPA