IN AN EFFORT to keep up with the ever-increasing number of children spending time online, Childline South Africa is now running a pilot project, which offers online counselling.

The project works through MXit and went live on 25th May 2009. Counselling and assistance is being offered nationally and is available Monday - Saturday, from 2pm – 6pm. The counsellors are Durban-based and operate from the Childline South Africa National office. The project is in full operation with the very kind assistance of volunteer counsellors who were recruited and trained in April and who have been working hard to make a success of this project.

To our great delight we have had an amazing response to the online counselling thus far, already having to increase the number of available counselors per shift. There are now 3 counsellors and a second group of counsellors are in the process of being recruited to meet the increasing number of requests from MXit users.

The project has not received any funding as yet and is in full operation with the assistance of volunteers and a dedicated and diligent project manager. With the increasing requests and the fast growth of the project, there is a rising urgency for funding so that we can effectively meet the demand.

If you would like more information on the MXit Online Counselling project or know of anyone who would like to help sponsor or assist our project, please contact Lamese Mukadam, Project Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it