This document serves to confirm that Abused and Abandoned Kids Educational Excursions (the “organisation”) holds a policy with the sole purpose of protecting the identities of abused/​abandoned/​orphaned children that it caters for.

The Reason

The organisation is committed to ensuring that the rights of the children it caters for are protected at all times. Included in these rights is the right to privacy and anonymity. As the organisation likes to show the public, including sponsors, donors, and the community, its activities from month to month, it has opted to protect the identities of these children, instead of not publishing media/​photographs at all.

Step One: – Obtaining Permission to take and keep photographs

In order for us to be able to publish photographs for a particular consignment/​event that involves the children we cater for, we must first obtain written permission from the associated beneficiary.

Before we consign goods/​services or hold an event where the children are to be present, we issue a Public Media Bulletin Acknowledgement and Consent Form to the associated beneficiary. This form contains all the contact details and other necessary information about the beneficiary, as well as information about the consignment/​event itself.

It also asks the beneficiary if the organisation has permission to publish photographs to any or all of the following:

1. Its website/​blog/​journal – a publicly-accessible internet location
2. If necessary, a newspaper local to (a) the beneficiary AND/OR (b) local to the organisation

This form is then signed by the following persons:

1. The managing director of the organisation
2. The communications and marketing officer of the organisation
3. The official, first point of contact of the beneficiary

Once permission has been granted, the organisation is then able to take the necessary photographs.

Step Two – Identity Protection

1. All photographs that are taken are saved on a password-protected computer system local to the organisation’s offices.
2. Photographs selected for display in our journal and social media pages are then copied to a queue for batch-processing.
3. These photographs are then edit, where the faces of the children are blurred out. In addition, a copyright and Identity Protection watermark is also stamped onto the photographs.
4. The edited photographs then get copied to our web-server for journal processing, as well as to our social media pages.

Governing Law

Any claim relating to this policy shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and in the appropriate jurisdiction.

Contacting Us

If you have any queries about this policy, please contact us.

Errors and Ommissions Excluded.