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  • Helping Hand Newsletter – February 2010 (2)

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  • Helping Hand Newsletter – February 2010

    Click here to download.
  • More than 41 000 say no to porn channels on DSTV

    MultiChoice to announce research findings soon

    A total of 41 381 South Africans have already said no to the introduction of pornography channels on DSTV in Solidarity Helping Hand’s No to Pornography campaign. Helping Hand intends to hand over these messages of protest to DSTV MultiChoice soon to demonstrate that South Africans oppose this option. Helping Hand will also draw up a comprehensive report stating the facts about pornography in South African and hand it over to the company.

    MultiChoice announced that its research has been completed and that the findings will be published within the next two weeks.

    Helping Hand still urges South Africans to speak out against pornography. People can send a message via the website www.neevirpornografie.co.za or SMS the word pornography to 35960.

    Popular evangelist Angus Buchan added his voice to those of numerous public figures during a Christian gathering over the weekend, expressing his dismay at the possibility that MultiChoice may broadcast pornography. Since the launch of the campaign, well-known personalities like Victor Matfield, Mel Botes and Hettie Britz have spoken out against pornography.

    The suicide of Jeannine du Plessis (21), one of the victims of the notorious Adv. Barbie (Cézanne Visser), has once again highlighted the devastating effect of sexual abuse, according to Helping Hand. Visser’s recent conviction on 11 charges of, among other things, sexual assault and the possession and manufacture of child pornography has once again put the spotlight on the dangers of pornography.

    Helping Hand has been inundated with letters from ordinary South Africans who tell heartbreaking stories about how pornography destroyed their lives. Social workers also shared their observations about how pornography cultivated young rapists. In one incident a twelve-year-old boy raped a five-year-old girl.

    Rina Joubert* relates how pornography destroyed her marriage of nine years. Joubert says that her husband’s addiction to hard pornography started when he watched explicit sex scenes on television. “The signs were there … rougher sex is what he wanted. He wanted to act out what he had seen on TV. When I wasn’t happy with it, he approached other women.”

    Factual guide on pornography

    • Studies have shown that 77% of molesters of boys and 87% of molesters of girls use pornography and act it out on their victims.
    • Pornography leads to perversity. Research shows that rape and sexual abuse are not reduced when pornography is freely available.
    • In a report on child abuse published by Helping Hand last year, it was found that there is a close connection between pornography and child molestation.
    • Although not all people who watch pornography are child molesters, experts say that all child molesters watch pornography.
    • The report on child abuse found, among other things, that victims of sexual abuse know the offenders in 90% of cases. Seeing that children are usually abused by family members or acquaintances, child abuse and molestation will increase drastically.
    • About 60 cases of child rape and 13 cases of child abuse are reported every day.
    • Approximately 88% of rapes are not reported, however.
    • Definitions of hard and soft pornography can be found on the website www.stop.org.za. Hard pornography includes rape, violence, abuse, sex with disabled people, bestiality and simulated child pornography.

    Listen to well-known personalities who have already said no to pornography

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    Who is Solidarity Helping Hand?

    Solidarity Helping Hand is the trade union Solidarity’s community initiative. Helping Hand operates within the Solidarity Movement, but is an independent Section 21 company that generates its own funds. Helping Hand runs an Afrikaans Bursary Institute, a Career Guidance Institute and an Institute for Caring Communities. The organisation manages upliftment projects for disadvantaged communities and mainly focuses on five large projects, namely the National School Case Project, the National Lunchbox Project, career guidance and community bursaries, the National Day for Taking a Child’s Hand and job creation. For more information, please visit www.helpinghandfund.co.za or call 012 644 4390.

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