The City of Cape Town is implementing a comprehensive child safety plan for the FIFA 2010 World Cup™ tournament.

The plan was developed together with the Western Cape Department of Social Development, and will dovetail with the holiday activity programme being presented across the metropole in all 23 subcouncil areas.

“The City will test the plan at the ‘Cape Town Welcomes the World Party’ at the Grand Parade on Thursday 10 June,” says Pam Naidoo, 2010 Project Coordinator at the City of Cape Town.

A central feature is a dedicated ‘lost and found’ facility staffed by eight trained social workers and child care practitioners.

For the duration of the World Cup, the plan provides for six ‘lost and found’ rooms located at the Cape Town Stadium, the Fan Fest, and all four fan jols – Vygieskraal Stadium, Bellville Velodrome, Swartklip Sports Centre and the OR Tambo Sports Centre.

In addition, all children - whether they are part of a group or just one of a family - will be tagged by the City’s volunteers who will be deployed at the entrances of the respective event sites.

“The volunteers will direct families or groups to the tagging facility where the details of each child and accompanying adult will be registered on a database. Unaccompanied children will be redirected to the nearest schools holiday programme,” says Naidoo.

“The City is acutely aware that children will be particularly vulnerable at large gatherings during the football extravaganza. Their safety and security is crucial to the staging of a successful event,” says Lesley de Reuck, the City’s 2010 Operations Director.

“Another feature of this comprehensive plan is to use the huge TV screens at each venue to intersperse personal health and safety messages between match screenings and entertainment shows."

“The screens will also be used to broadcast messages of missing children. Details of the person claiming the lost child will first be checked against the tagging information logged on the database,” says De Reuck.

Seventeen information kiosks across the city including the stadium, fan jols, the stations, City Hall, and other easily accessible venues, will double up as child safety information centres.

“This plan is a joint effort between the City, Provincial Government, Cape Town Tourism, Cape Town Routes Unlimited and the volunteers,” says De Reuck.