About the Company

Each year, over 1.5 million children and adults dial the toll-free Childline telephone number to talk to counsellors from one of the 10 national Crisisline centres. From concerned parents, to inquisitive adolescents and children in distress, Childline works collectively to protect children from all forms of violence and to create a culture of children's rights in South Africa.

As part of the Child Helpline International network, Childline South Africa is a key source of statistics on abuse and other child-related matters, both locally and internationally. Reports produced by Childline are not only useful to the media; through lobbying and advocacy, the data gathered by Childline provides critical baselines for driving progress in education, law, and policy. Childline also works closely with bodies such as the Department of Social Development, UNICEF and ISPCAN to provide a multilateral approach to child rights, education, and prevention of abuse.

Project Overview

Fielding on average over 4000 calls per day, Childline requires a coordinated approach to data collection and analysis. Childline operators are required to not only provide counselling and support to callers, but are also required to accurately and efficiently capture data about each call. The system needed to capture this magnitude of data would be required to be fast and intuitive, protect the confidentiality of the caller, and provide an interface to generate accurate reports from the underlying data. In addition, the 24-hour nature of the Crisisline helpline would necessitate the development of a high-availability platform, able to sustain continued operation with minimal intervention.

Our Solution

Creation Labs was tasked with developing a solution, and successfully completed the implementation of the web-based Crisisline system in 2013. Since inception, our solution has helped over 3 million callers by providing the necessary operational support for Childline counsellors around the country.