‘Completing the Circle of Care’

 

 

Conference Overview

September – 2004

Wednesday 15th September 2004: Plenary Session.

Voices from the Community

 

Main points:

  • Living with HIV, watching your children die and bringing up your own orphaned grandchildren
  • Growing up without a mother, needing advice, who to turn to, needing love…
  • Seeing the reality of daily life with HIV and Illness, giving her ‘all’ to the sick and the needy

‘I HATE HIV…’

 

Detailed account: ‘Voices from the Community’ Plenary Session

 

Presentation from a Gogo:

How does it feel to be a woman looking after orphans?

 

I am Mma Mash. I stay in Swalala. I am 66 years old and I am a widow. I had 9 children (6 daughters and 3 sons). I’ve lost 3 of my daughters who died and 1 son. At the moment I’m staying with 2 of my daughters and 4 of my grandchildren from my children who died. I am supporting the family with my pension money and the food parcel from Masoyi Home Based Care.

 

·                    Things that have affected my life

1. In 1999 my son died with a gun shot. I was so shocked and heart broken because of his sudden death. I sometimes think that it was a dream but it was not a dream. 

2. 3 of my children have died of the same disease, I will never forget this in my life. In 2000 that’s when the disease started in my house. My daughter got sick then she died of HIV/AIDS. In 2002 my other daughter also got sick with the same disease then she died. In 2003 my other daughter also died of the same disease.

3.  I am living in a very painful situation because I am staying with my daughter who is very sick at the moment with a same disease. I have to bath her, cook for her and do the washing.

 

·                    Difficulties I face as a mother

I find it so difficult being an old woman like me who needs care but in this situation I have to look after a critically ill person. Looking after my grand children, I support them with their school needs, using my pension money. Another problem that I come across, my grand children don’t listen to me they are very stubborn. They demand money from me even if tell them that the money is finished. But they keep on moaning at me. This situation is depressing and every day of my life is unhappy, I now have a lot of stress.

 

·                    How HIV/AIDS affects my life

I hate this incurable disease; it caused me to be in such a horrible situation. My daughters were responsible and good mothers for their children. If it wasn’t for this terrible disease my children would still be alive.

 

Presentation from an Orphan:

How does it feel to be a girl without parents?

 

My name is Nontsikelelo Phoku. I stay in Mahushu Area. I am 20 years old doing grade 9 at Bhekiswayo High School. Both my parents are dead, we are now Orphans. My role at home is to cook, do washing and other home activities. In my family we are 11, at the moment we are 8 staying together at home. There are 2 of my brothers and 4 children from my sister, who died. We are all at school except my 3 older brothers who have completed school. In this situation one of my brothers is selling Bananas, He supports the family by buying food and other needs meanwhile Masoyi Home Based Care is supporting the whole family with a food parcel every month, which is making a difference.

 

·                    Difficulties I face in my life

1. From when both of my parents died. In 2001 my mother died, she left us with our father a single parent, At that time we were secure with him as a father. In 2002 he got sick for a short time and than he died. That has brought misery into my life in such a way that it interrupted me in my school work. I failed Grade 11 because of this situation. I started to feel as if I’m different from other children at school. I feel ignored in this world. 

2. In 2003, I started to get through from that situation. Then, my older sister got sick and then she died. She left her 4 children who are now staying with us. It was so difficult to handle this situation as a girl.

3. Another thing that is causing a pain in my life these days is the situation of my younger sister. She is 18 years old, doing grade 11. She is now sick and not performing well at school. We were staying together but now she has move to stay with our aunt.

 

·                    Difficulties of being a girl without parents

1. Being a girl without parents is a pain, when I come across problems as a teenager there’s no one to share with and to give guidance as a mother.

2. There are also many problems we find concerning our love-life. However, if there’s no one to ask or to share with we start to pick bits and pieces of advice from people and we find that some of the advice is bad advice, like: Getting involved with boys at the earliest stage, that can lead into pregnancy or contracting other sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/ AIDS

3. If I get pregnant, as a vulnerable child the boy can take the opportunity to deny me because there is no one who can stand with me.

4. Rapists will try and take advantage and abuse us, especially if the house is not safe.

 

·                    How I think HIV/AIDS has affected girls

1. As a girl when I look the way HIV /AIDS is spreading it brings fear and misery across the Nation because so many children are left without parents.

2. We as the youth talk about HIV/AIDS but we are fearful of being tested and I think that causes the disease to spread more.

 

Presentation from a Masoyi Home Based Care Volunteer:

How does it feel to be a volunteer looking after orphans and sick patients?

 

I am Rose Morele. Staying at Swalala. I am working at Jerusalem.

·                    Why I became a volunteer

Working in Jerusalem Clinic, I used to see many sick people coming to the clinic. Most of the people were suffering from TB and with the symptoms of HIV/Aids. This has touched me in such a way that I had to find out where they were living and in what living conditions. I decided to become a volunteer.

 

·                    The project in which I work

In Masoyi there is a project called Masoyi Home Based Care Project. I joined the project in the Jerusalem area in order to gain knowledge on how to take care of the critically ill people and to monitor their needs.

 

·                    My duties as a volunteer

I visit sick people and help the critically ill people by washing them when they are not able to do for themselves. I even wash clothes and cook food for them. Those who have no food I report to the support team to do an assessment. If they qualify they are then added into the feeding scheme. We help them these people physical and spiritually.

 

·                    Looking after orphans

I visit orphans in their homes, especially those who stay alone, to observe if they are safe and protected. I come across many problems such as:

(a) House broken windows

(b) Unsafe house doors

(c) Some of them are living in shacks which are not built properly and when it rains, the water is leaking all over the floor and their possessions

(d) Some are starving, they sleep without having food

(e) Some are not schooling, they don’t have school uniform and there’s no one to pay for their school fees

 

Masoyi HBC has tried to fix the unsafe houses, give a food parcel and to consider each orphans school needs.

 

·                    Problems I face as a volunteer

I face problems such as orphans who don’t have birth certificates and their parents death certificates. Many of the orphans are on the streets at night.

 

·                    Looking after the girls

I treat them like a mother, give them love and observe their needs

 

·                    How difficult it is to look after girls

It is so easy for girls to be tempted because men always promise to give them money and valuable things. Therefore, when the girls are in this stage it is not easy to control them. They start their love-life at the earliest stage, they get pregnant and the men refuse to take responsibility. On the other side they are forced to leave school.

 

·                    What can we do to protect the girls?

We have to teach our children about this disease, so that they can be able to behave themselves and abstain from sex. To form support groups where they can do various activities and learn about health

 

·                    Lastly, I would like to share a real short story about a Girl.

There was a certain lady, her name was Norah. Norah was 21 years old and stayed in Swalala. She had 4 children, they were all girls. She didn’t have anywhere to stay because she had been chased away from home. She was house-sitting in a house where she stayed. After a few days, they found out that she was sick and they chased her away. Other people offered her a place to stay. The place they offered was in a bad condition. The windows were broken and covered with plastic. The roofing was in a very bad condition so that if it rained, it was leaking through, causing the floor to be wet. She was sleeping on that wet floor using hard boxes and old sacks. She was there with her 4 daughters; all were starving and very sick. I reported this whole situation to my project and Masoyi Home Based Care intervened. They brought food and clothes for this family. When the owner of the house heard that Norah was seriously ill, they asked her to leave before she could die in the house. The other family felt sorry for her and asked her to stay in their house. That house too was in very bad condition. Masoyi Home Based Care went there and fixed the house for her. She stayed peacefully with her daughters, getting food and attending school regularly. She had hope that she had overcome all her sufferings. One day when I had come from work, I got a message that I should visit Norah’s house urgently, it was 5:30pm in the afternoon, I was so tired, sick and my feet were very sore. I couldn’t visit that afternoon and decided to see them the following day. At 8am the owners of the house came to me and asked me to fetch Norah, from her house, before she died. I went there that night and found Norah in a very critical situation. I carried her on my back to her sister’s house, 2km away. She passed away after two days, leaving her 4 beautiful daughters.

 

Wednesday 15th September 2004: Discussion of Plenary Session.

Voices from the Community

 

Main points:

·                    ‘No quick solutions’

·                    ‘Need to support, train and empower the Grannies’

·                    ‘More activity from local churches à Support’

·                    ‘We can, and we need to, support each other!’

·                    ‘My neighbour’s child is still my child’

·                    ‘We are the government, we are the church, we are the people!’

 

Detailed account: ‘Voices from the Community’ Discussion

Dudu

We need to view what we heard this morning in the context of South Africa and all of Africa. What is happening here is happening all over Africa. This is a vast problem.

 

Carlos from Maforga

  • What touched me so much when she shared was that the same situation exists in Mozambique.
  • There are two things we need address, the physical side and the spiritual side.
  • We need to pray and encourage the Gogo’s through scripture and prayer.
  • The Gogo needs to be empowered with communication skills specific to the situation.
  • She needs to be provided with material support as well as communication skills and adolescent social values

 

Rose, PSA, South Africa

  • Needs to be educated about social values.
  • The Gogo is afraid that the children will become criminals. 

·        She needs communication skills.  Material support is only one side of the things that they need.  

·        She must communicate with them on lots of issues such as adolescents and social values. 

·        She needs to be empowered on how to communicate with adolescents.  They need to be put in the picture that they are 0rphans and the implications of their situation.

  • This Gogo is facing issues she has already dealt with regarding raising her won children. In addition, the way parents raise children today is different compared to how the Gogo would have raised her own children. She needs support in terms of how to deal with rebellious adolescents.
  • The children need counselling and support as their rebellious behaviour may also be due to societal factors.

 

Suggestion to break down the issues in the Gogo’s story and decide which sector should address these issues.

 

George Snyman, Hands @ Work in Africa

Let us hear from each other to hear what others are doing, we can’t solve issues in this morning’s discussion.

For example, at Masoyi Home Based Care we have a holistic approach.

We have started care centres in the community’s existing structure.  This is a pre-schoolers holistic care centre providing a cooked meal and psychosocial support, it is also an after school care centre for older children so they can get help with their matriculation exams, take part in a choir, have a cooked meal, and participate in the vegetable garden alongside the Gogo’s.

 

Through discussion, the following were considered the main issues that the Gogo is facing.

1.                  Looking after children who have lost mothers but the fathers are still alive. She is a pensioner not getting a grant.

2.                  The children are uncontrolled and undisciplined. It is difficult at this age to do discipline.

3.                  She herself needs elderly physical care but she also has to raise her grandchildren and care for her sick daughter.

4.                  She needs her own supportive care, she feels unhappy when she thinks about her children and their future. She is starting to lose hope. This Gogo needs emotional support.

 

Les Harper, Youth for Christ, Mozambique.

·                    Emphasized the need for mentoring and counselling both for the caregiver and the orphaned child.

·                    Suggested we train volunteer Christians from churches to form mentoring relationships with a small number of vulnerable orphans.

·                    In Johannesburg there are mentoring programs in high schools for girls.

·                    Churches represent a vast untapped resource.

·                    We can mobilize Christians that are already in churches to be Christ to the lonely child in the surrounding community.

·                    We need counselling/discipleship material which counsellors can use with children; a program which is Biblically based and available as a shared resource so we are all working with essentially the same foundational material.

·                    We need support groups for the Gogo’s and all those who care for orphans.

·                    We need to look at Social Services policies across the provinces.

·                    Orphans need to be identified at school then referred to Guidance teachers who are already in place. The guidance teachers need to be trained on how to help with/ counsel orphans.

·                    We also need to set up debriefing support groups for volunteers as they are also emotionally affected by their work.

 

Beatrice, Germiston.

·                    Gogo headed families need cycles of support.

·                    Community churches must take the initiative and not wait for the government. We are the government.

·                    We have to educate the Gogo’s at grass roots level, using indigenous languages.

·                    The community needs take responsibility to organize Gogo’s into workshops and inform them their about the available resources in their local community (i.e. organisations providing food, clothes, provision of school fees)

 

Heartbeat for Child

·                    Organization in Gauteng Province that helps child headed families, by providing them with food. The organisation checks factual accounts first and then provides food to those in need.

·                    They run an after school community centre which looks after the children of granny headed and child headed families. The organisation asks schools to identify orphans who can come to the community centre and get help with their homework and the development of life skills.

 

Wisdom, Kangonga, Zambia

·                    Church needs to play a role in the issue of trauma and the need for provision of psychosocial support as well as spiritual support.

 

PSA 

·                    Go back to the basics “My neighbour’s child is still my child”.

·                    In our community we have community committees. They elect reps from each structure (teachers, nurses, counsellors) they need to know that we have problems with orphans.

·                    We can’t keep this problem to ourselves, we need to share this problem with them and utilize community members.

·                    We all need take responsibility.

·                    Gogo must not carry the burden alone; she must share her problems with others.

 

Theresa, Hands @ Work in Africa, Malawi

·                    We are all called to ministry regardless of our situation. This is the heartbeat of God; his response is love and mercy.

·                    Africans have long kept their extended families intact. The Lord is working at restoring families and family values. No child should be left on their own.

·                    Her ministry is to restore family and bring back family values.

·                    God is asking each one of us to work with that which we have in our hands, at our disposal.

·                    Women in Africa are strong they are the backbone of society.

·                    We like to say ‘the government, the church’ but we are the government the church’.

·                    Help is all around us we just need to mobilise ourselves.

·                    15-49% of people in Malawi have AIDS; people are dying while we sit in meetings. We need to start acting in faith; our faith is useless without actions.

 

Melanie, Mukhanyo, CDC

·                    What about psychosocial support? Is anyone effectively helping their children deal with the trauma and the grief, not from a psychology point of view, but from someone who loves the Lord, is biblically based?

·                    How do we counsel children and families that are traumatized by death and dying

·                    We need to lead children to Christ

·                    Do we have a Biblically based counselling program to deal with this?

·                    Need a workshop on how to address this biblically

·                    Has heard of a group called REPSSI but wondering if they are biblically based

·                    Wants a program that includes accepting Jesus as saviour as the starting point

 

Nigel, Little Seeds

·                    Families are suffering from layers and layers of different types of trauma

·                    This organisation focuses on training preschool teachers, teaching early childhood development.

·                    People want to help but they don’t know how.

·                    Education is the way out of poverty.

·                    Many organisations are struggling under their workload. Little Seeds aim to serve other organisations in their planning.

·                    They want to help train and facilitate workers. All the trainers are Christian and the training itself is Bible based and delivered in a variety of languages.

·                    The psychosocial support aspect of their work has been growing over recent years.

·                    Little Seeds offers workshops and training for Gogo’s/foster parents/caregivers as well as teenage heads of households.

·                    They have accredited training programmes for preschool teachers leading to national qualifications.

·                    They hope to have accredited courses on psychosocial support by next year.

·                    Proper certification offers empowerment to rural people.

·                    They have had success in their work with teenagers re: trauma of bereavement and are amazed at how the teenagers have started to open up and talk about sensitive issues.

 

Wednesday 15th September 2004: Workshop.

Donor Involvement

 

Main points:

·                    No conclusions drawn on whether donors should be part of model building.

·                    Donors should be involved in pre-proposal stage.

·                    Donors should not initiate networking amongst their projects.

 

In addition

·                    Open Communication is KEY!

·                    Role of Donor needs to be CLEARLY defined.

·                    Mutual integrity / fair balance of power needed.

·                    Donors have wealth of experience and skills that can provide insight and help to the organization.

 

Detailed account: ‘Donor Involvement’ Workshop

 

The workshop aimed to address three main questions and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each area.

1.                  Should Donors be part of model building?

2.                  Should Donors be involved in the pre-proposal stage?

3.                  Should Donors initiate networking among their projects to enhance capacity building and resources sharing?

 

1. Should Donors be part of model building?

There is a need for partnerships to operate between projects and different interested parties, such as the government, who can input resources.

Training of home based care, and presenting to the government.  What type of training is needed?

The home based care projects are all working individually, rather than working together and interlinking to discuss problems and solutions.

 

Advantages

  • Better designed programmes
  • It provides a fresh, outside perspective
  • Donor experience from other projects
  • Will result in donor commitment and long term funding
  • There will be a better allocation of funding
  • In house consultation
  • Mutual education

 

Disadvantages

  • Selling the vision for the sake of getting funding
  • People are busy and the time taken for networking may not be of value
  • Donors can have a lack of understanding of the issues
  • Potential lack of control

 

If a donor is to be involved, there must be a long tem commitment from both parties, in which mutual integrity is evident and the balance of power shared. Donor understanding can work as either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the circumstances. Sometimes the donor needs to be educated even more so than the donee. Donors have a wealth of expertise and skills that can, if these skills are in the same field as the organization, provide insight and help to the organization. If the Donors skills are not in the same field as the organisation, they can impose ideas from other regions that may be irrelevant or not work. Because of the power of donors, they may sell the vision of the organization for the sake of money. The interaction involvement with the donor will work better with the smaller donor, rather than bigger NGOs that are seeking international funding. There must be mutual integrity from both parties. Open communication is important. There needs to be mutual long-term commitment

 

Obstacles

  • The donor size is an issue
  • Donor understanding
  • Where will the balance of power lie?

 

Conclusion

  • No overall conclusion was reached.

 

2. Should Donors be involved in the pre-proposal stage?

Advice, access to a network and practices are important issues, whilst money is only a side issue. 

Donor involvement is often tolerated rather than appreciated, with miscommunication often occurring, rather than having appreciation of one another.

The role of the donor and the implement organization are unique, complimentary and can create synergy.  The relationship should be long term.

NGOs are tempted to please the donors rather than the target group.  Donor involvement at pre-proposal stage affects the sustainability of the project negatively.

A precondition for funding should be to visit three other projects in the area and come up with concrete plans for co-operation.

 

Advantages

  • Knowing what the donor wants useful for both donor and donee
  • The donor deals with the paperwork, and there is less paperwork for both
  • The donor will know the objective of the project
  • There will be people on the ground for capacity building and fundraising
  • There are requirements for positive donor response
  • Donor operates in a guiding capacity
  • Brings familiarization with the donor
  • In the pre-proposal stage, donor acts as a backbone to the organisation
  • Identification for improvement within the organization
  • Provides monitoring and evaluation
  • Will create best practice for the project through their experience, which donors can introduce to CBO
  • Donor can help with level of literacy in organization, as some leaders have no education and do not understand what a proposal is
  • Donor can support networking

 

Disadvantages

  • Donors may switch places to suit their needs, which is donor domination
  • Donors might impose their wishes/opinions to the CBO, causing a loss of focus on the organisation
  • Trying to please the donor can in the end be discouraging especially when it is realised that directives cannot be met
  • Many proposals lead to budget constraints
  • Conflict of interests
  • Long distance and communication breakdown
  • Prolongs the process of funding

 

Donors have many proposals and only a certain level of budget.  If they take on new projects, this may lead to a conflict of interests in that they will no longer be able to fund some of the other projects they may previously have been involved in. The importance of communication needs to be highlighted. In addition, the role of the donor needs to be clearly defined.

 

Obstacles

  • Possible inflexibility of the donors

 

Conclusion

  • Donors should be involved in the pre-proposal stage.

 

3. Should Donors initiate networking among their projects to enhance capacity building and resources sharing?

There is a sense of divide between donor and donee, where partnership and co-operation should be the expectation. It is much easier for the donor to stick to a predefined list where involvement is acceptable. It is easier to keep a distance from the donee. The donee also finds it easier to just take the money and keep a distance from the donor. However, this can cause breakdown of communication and honesty. Both sides have a huge sense of stewardship over the funding, and this will increase as the international funding for HIV increases. It is going to take time to be involved in the model building process, discovering the appropriate way to invest resources, yet there is pressure to fund because of the horrific stories constantly coming forth from projects.

 

Advantages

  • Added value
  • It provides a more economic solution
  • It provides a co-ordination of services
  • Provides healthy competition
  • Monitoring will be provided
  • Addressing competition issues

 

Disadvantages

  • It stifles creative thinking and original ideas
  • The time factor as people are busy – for example, internet websites
  • Networking invokes cost, much energy and continuous driving in order to make it happen (motivation through communication)

 

Can be a feeling of competition over resources

If two home based care projects are operating, one may be fine and the other corrupt, which could be an issue when considering networking

In networking, where one group sees that another group has implemented programmes that work, they can take these on board and be encouraged by it

Networking can occur because of the donor, who can then decide that they are relocating, which causes the whole process to collapse. However, it is only possible if organizations are in similar services

Networking needs to be defined clearly

 

Obstacles

  • Donors trying to prescribe to projects rather than just getting involved
  • Potential competitiveness
  • Protection of own projects and donors
  • Sharing knowledge and resources does not necessarily lead to working together

 

Conclusion

  • The overall answer to whether donors should initiate networking amongst their projects is no. The organizations themselves should be the driving force behind the project and need to ensure that it can be maintained.

 

 

 

Wednesday 15th September: Workshop.

The Lula Centre

 

Main points:

  • The Lula Centre is:
  • ‘A place of hope’.
  • Holistic care centre providing psychosocial support to children, relieving the stress on grannies.
  • Excellent in its simplicity .
  • Replicable across Africa, inexpensive and easy to set up, uses existing resources in the community.
  • Components: Vegetable gardens (providing food and training in growing food), Nurse for medical care, Psychosocial input for preschoolers and teenagers, Spiritual care incorporated into all areas.

 

Detailed account: ‘Lula Centre’ Workshop

 

Introduction, History and Tour of the Lula Centre. George Snyman, Hands @ Work in Africa

  • What ever you do, it needs to be able to be duplicated anywhere in Africa or it’s not worth doing.
  • It is easy to build a project up in 10 years but to do something simple that can be duplicated is the best way to make it sustainable. Why not have 350 projects over 10 years run by the community. Without the community it is a waste of time.
  • The heart of Masoyi is to find the key for the people. 
  • Pointed out the house they have for destitute orphans.
  • What can we do in the community? All of us are HIV:  either positive or negative.  - - We are all infected or affected. To this end LULA is a place of hope. So that if anyone comes here to see it they can build one like it when they return to their home. 
  • Aim is to offer a place that offers HOPE to the community

 

Karen Malan, Lula Centre Co-ordinator

  • Dream that God has put in our hearts.
  • We don’t see the centre as only a preschool, dream is to make it a psychosocial support centre within the Masoyi community
  • Emotional support is a huge chunk of their lives that haven’t been reached by HBC
  • Emotional states are not good for children grannies and matriculants who have no jobs.
  • First need to meet the physical needs to everyone who comes here - nutritional diet for grannies and children.  Thrust is to relieve the situations of the grannies.  Provide breakfast and lunch
  • Veggie garden – for food used at LULA centre
  • Nurse stationed twice a week.  Keeps track of road to health map
  • Many children are very vulnerable – when they come here they can just be children and it is a safe place
  • Nurse takes into consideration grannies and older children
  • A big focus is lifting the emotional health of Masoyi Home Based Care clients within the Masoyi community through counselling sessions focused on trauma and general feelings of insecurity.
  • Aim to get caregivers to bond with children especially those who have been placed in homes with no other
  • Train caregivers in emotions that may be experienced – anger withdrawal, aggression – grannies are not used to this
  • Counselling to caregivers who are challenged by taking in extra children
  • Counselling to children who have experienced abuse
  • Mental health – aimed at the pre-primary child.  Many children have not had any desire to play or
  • Occupational therapy – try to establish firm basis
  • Offer life skills to children in the way that they can learn to organise their lives with what they have help in decision making skills
  • Spiritual care incorporated into every area
  • Aim for excellence in simplicity.  Use what community uses.  Teachers are community trained – empower community to help them to help themselves. 

 

OPEN DISCUSSION

Q: What is the role of government? 

A: At a local level we work very closely with social workers. Meetings are held in the local clinic. We work closely with teachers, the teachers identify candidates for the leadership development program for OVCs. At a provincial level, we keep the key people informed and try to remain transparent.

 

Q:  The government wants to establish partnerships with Community Based Organisations but we can’t do it all and in silence. Is the way forward therefore to get all the stakeholders involved?

 

Q:  It’s good to try to keep it simple, use what you have. In Mozambique only one in 5 children attends a government school. Youth for Christ runs schools but they are very tenuous due to poverty. Parents, who can, try to pay school fees. We need to raise orphan sponsorships from outside.  We don’t want to create dependency, but if we don’t help in one way or another nothing will happen. Notes that Garden idea is a good way. Schools in Gaza are not sustainable at the moment. We need advice on how to do it.

 

Mohamba

We have been given a piece of ground – can grow mealie meal – sees things in this Masoyi community that can be done over there to help the orphans. They do make school clothes over there too. 

Old people are difficult to care for. To visit them is not enough. Make a place for them to take care of them. She takes care of a lady in her own house and her family didn’t want her because her leg was rotten and stunk. She even has an orphan that she takes care of.

 

Carlos

Glad to see the concern for babies 0-7 years. The Jewish and Islamic cultures teach the child at home then they are sent to school. In Mozambique, parents don’t take time with their children. They learn other things and by age 12 it is too late. Want 5 or even one of such centres (Lula) in Mozambique. They have a hospice and do Feeding. A mother whose husband passed away and then she passed away leaving four children. After 2 years they will be split up – we are helping them by teaching the older ones to take care of the others – some come twice a week and then get follow up. For those who have no place to go we take them in. Babies stay with us 2 weeks to gain weight. We also supply milk formula to the grandma.

 

Tumelo Mission

Hatfield Haven started as a spin-off from HMC – hospice was one of our first projects. HBC used to go to community and give them food parcels but it was not enough so a non-residential haven was created which also provides primary school education. School children are not left out – come on Sat and school holidays – help with homework. 2 satellites – one grew so much that in Feb one was opened that is a duplicate of the original haven. We shared groceries between the initial haven and the satellite. We started by sharing but now it is functioning by itself. This shows how we can start with a little and then it grows to a lot.

 

Dieudonne from DRC

There are even more orphans because of the war. Our project is under the church. During war – the parents and children get separated. Or soldiers kill parents in front of the children. The children are traumatized. At end of the war just trying to find which children still have someone alive and which ones have no one is a difficult job. They don’t only want money they also want family life. Look within the church to see who can adopt some of the orphans. Church supports some of the children. Or start vocational training – dressmaking for girls and carpentry for boys. Right now in Congo there is no organizations set up by the government, there are no social workers - our only hope is the church.

 

Bongi Thembalethu

We work in 12 villages. Tells of a choir from Cape Town – children’s choir.  From each village they take an orphan child - they have cut a CD and the choir tours all over the world. The children in the choir then come home and become leaders. This is an example of what she sees as a big future for children who are orphans – “the way people are thinking of orphans, they will have more than we ever had who have parents”.

 

 

 

Wednesday 15th September: Workshop.

Group Psychosocial Support

 

Main points:

  • Psychosocial support is: meeting all a child’s needs; spiritual, emotional, physical, educational, social
  • Psychosocial support is: based in all interactions, a way of thinking, trying to understand a child’s world, listening!
  • Psychosocial support is: providing opportunities to create secure and healthy relationships with vulnerable children
  • Psychosocial support is: providing opportunities for children to feel safe and express themselves
  • Current Obstacles to providing psychosocial support were viewed as cultural issues, (lack of openness to death), lack of training, resources and funding and stigma
  • Practical ways to provide psychosocial support right now; life skills and parenting skills programs, community/church activities (dancing, drama, singing, sports), support groups and mentoring programs

 

Detailed account: ‘Group Psychosocial Support’ Workshop

 

Introductions

The group got into pairs, introduced each other and talked about each other expectations. Each pair then introduced their partner to the rest of the group. This promoted a bond within the group. Common expectations included:

1.                  Wanting to know what to say to children who have been abused, traumatised during disclosure of abuse

2.                  Wanting to learn techniques for talking therapeutically with traumatised children

3.                  Wanting to have resources to learn therapeutic skills

4.                  Wanting to know where to find training in therapeutic work.

5.                  Wanting to know, where do we start?

 

Circles of Support Exercise

Exercise found in the Journey of Life workshop book (provided by REPSSI). Illustrates how the support roles of people in the community such as; Relative, Neighbour, Teacher, Auntie, Pastor, can influence a child’s future by the way each person reacts when the child is struggling.

 

What is Psychosocial Support?

  • Psychosocial support is the ongoing process of meeting all the children’s needs: physical, emotional, social, mental, spiritual needed for meaningful and positive human development into happy healthy adults
  • It has become increasingly important to examine the impact of HIV and AIDS on the psychological health of children who have experienced the trauma of caring for and the loss of their parents. What are the issues?
  • Children affected by AIDS face greater risks as stigma and discrimination often deprives them of basic social services and education in addition to the problems of vulnerable children (malnutrition, illness, abuse, sexual exploitation)
  • Diagram to demonstrate needs of children (wheel model), all elements of the wheel need to be provided, if provided alone they will not be adequate.

 

What will happen if we fail to support children affected by AIDS?

Negative impact on society è dysfunctional adults / society

 

Who/What is REPSSI?

  • The Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) is a technical resource network that was established in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 2001 where representatives from five countries in southern Africa met in the Salvation Army’s Masiye camp to address the issue of psychosocial support for children affected by HIV/AIDS.
  • The project has since evolved into an active regional programme that has produced and disseminated materials, undertaken skills building activities, held programmes to empower youth, and supported advocacy efforts to integrate practical psychosocial support into regional programmes.
  • REPSSI has a partner base of nearly 60 organisations in the region working on psychosocial support activities, and provides technical support to other programmes beyond Africa.
  • The REPSSI model: Masiye Farm was outlined. Basic setup, training needs of workers and techniques used with the children were outlined. (for full details see booklet and resource CD, by REPSSI, which was handed out at the conference)

 

Children’s Rights

  • Psychosocial support is a child’s right! They need support that goes beyond food and shelter –love, care and social support, as well as related needs such as protection, rights and entitlement to education.
  • Psychosocial support for children affected by HIV/ADIS is directly linked to the rights listed in the UN convention on the Rights of a child. Children are especially vulnerable to maltreatment or exploitation and a child cannot be physically without also being psychologically secure. Therefore, in order to seriously respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights, it is vital their psychological needs are met.

 

Group Discussion and Feedback

 

Should HBC projects initiate groups psychosocial support programs?

Yes. Home Based Care Projects should take a holistic approach toward caring for their community. It is important to involve other organisation with expertise in the field of psychosocial support in order to network, raise awareness and utilise research findings.

 

What do you think of the REPSSI model?

Model is good, workable, practical, children learn to work in teams, improve their self esteem / ability to trust others / confidence in themselves as well as using available resources.

 

What are the obstacles to providing psychosocial support in your area?

Closed societies

Negative cultural issues and myths / stigma and discrimination

Church not appropriate in their approach to reaching those who are vulnerable

Lack of training / resources / knowledge / trained facilitators

Lack of openness to discussing topics such as death

Poverty

Lack of community support

Lack of time – where to focus limited resources?

 

Practical ways of providing psychosocial support – group brainstorm

  • Support groups for teenagers, group discussions / story telling
  • Peer education and mentoring
  • Life skills training
  • Involve the community
  • Counselling
  • Share the word of God / reading the bible
  • Breaking the silence in families
  • Drama / Singing / Sports activities and traditional dancing
  • Parenting skills program
  • Developmental assessment training

Thursday 16th September: Plenary Session.

Reaching and Protecting Girls

 

Main points:

·                    The African girl is vulnerable to sexual abuse, rape and sexually transmitted diseases

·                    The situation is in crisis as the culture no longer protects the African girl

·                    We must act and end the silence

·                    We must empower our girls and young women to stand up for, and exercise, their rights specifically the right to their own dignity

 

Detailed account: ‘Reaching and Protecting Girls’ Plenary Session

 

Culture forms the bedrock of numerous norms, values, beliefs, and practices which inform views about sex, sexuality and gender relations. Although not all cultural practices are detrimental, to safeguard the girl requires an analysis of those cultural values which promote casual sex among girls and boys and girls and men. HIV/AIDS in Africa is mainly spread through heterosexual sex, and therefore there is need to empower girls and women with necessary skills and knowledge and ability to exercise their rights to dignity and self-respect.

 

Girls in Malawi, like many other countries in Africa, are experiencing a serious epidemic, threatening their survival despite over 15 years response the impact remains devastating and our efforts inadequate given the pace at which the disease is spreading. Any efforts to strengthen the church’s response in any nation, to HIV/AIDS therefore requires an analysis of those cultural values which impact negatively the lives of the girl child and makes her vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. It is clearly evident that the cultural values that promote casual sex among girls and boys/men have led to the rise of the high incidence of HIV and AIDS in girls. Africans need to develop a more positive and responsible view about sex and sexuality and exercise mutual respect between men and women. Not all cultural values should be viewed as having a negative impact on the girl child; however, what has been a cause for concern has been the reneging of parents on their parental roles and also the socio-economic status of most African families. It is vital to seek safe alternatives to the various sex-based cultural rituals and initiation rites in order to reduce the risk of HIV infection and promote virtues of human dignity and mutual responsibility between men and women. 

 

Tradition

Most Africans view pre-marital and extra-marital sex as a demonstration of manhood.  This is basically because our cultural values about sex and sexuality tend to emphasize and strengthen this view by venerating men with many ‘female conquests’. On the other hand, some sub-culture view ‘no’ to men’s advances in or outside the family is dissonant with acceptable social norms. African society today is very far removed from its traditional, tightly knit communities that did constrain men, mostly to their wives. Due to urbanisation and migratory work, most men are involved in polygamous/extramarital affairs and largely with young girls, exposing them to HIV infection. It has become increasingly clear that values, belief systems and gender power relations play a fundamental role in shaping both the concept of sex and sexual behaviour. Among males sex is viewed as natural human development and an unavoidable activity, manhood without sex is viewed and considered incomplete. Sex is sought after as a recreation and perhaps an expression of male domination over the female. This situation increases risk of sexual transmission of HIV in particular to girls and women.

 

Girls are brought up to be subservient and submissive in a derogatory and oppressive manner. In the majority of African communities the socialisation of women emphasizes reproductive and support roles and makes women powerless over their male counterparts; this has had an overspill and negative effect on the girl child. Girls are viewed customarily as a domestic resource whereas boys are viewed as domestic responsibilities; it is therefore evident to the girl child from the outset that men/boys are regarded as superior beings. There is a need to educate the family as a whole vis a vis family values that will sustain families and restore dignity to both male and female children.  Further girls need to be taught assertiveness and life skills that give them control over their own sexuality to be able to protect themselves against possible abuse and infection.

 

Marriage

In certain African tribes, when the wife dies the younger sister is given to the husband to replace the sister, especially in cases where there are young children to take care of. Further, where the husband is viewed as a ‘good’ husband or son-in-law, he is given the wife’s younger sister as a token of appreciation from the in-laws. This is also viewed in polygamous families as a way of ‘keeping it in the family”. 

 

Environment

Due to the family living conditions in most African tribes, parents and children share the same bedrooms – this has led to abuse of young girls and early exposure to sex. The mothers of most girls will not take any action against the husband, the young girls are simply told – ‘it is your father’ or that it would bring shame on the family if revealed or they would be divorced and unable to cope on their own (cite case of what happens to the younger sister-in-laws in many marriages, where women would rather have their husbands have affairs with their younger sisters than an outsider). There is a lot of pressure on girls to ‘grow up’ in the African culture and get married. There is no ‘dating’ as would be the case in western cultures however, most girls are involved in clandestine sexual activities, which customarily parents would turn a blind eye to. Most girls hardly know their husbands when they get married and because of the poverty levels in most African societies parents are eager to marry off their daughters to lessen the burden of child rearing. Even older men are thought of as a good catch, the negotiations for the marriage are usually carried out in patrilineal societies by the suitor and the girl’s uncle and in matrilineal societies by the girl’s mother. The girl is only made aware of the pending marriage once the marriage deal has been sealed. 

 

In most Southern African countries men marry girls whose fertility has been proven. Most men will marry girls who have already had a child. Girls are therefore expected to have had sexual relations prior to getting married.

 

Death

When one or both parents have died HIV and AIDS the elder girls in the family are required to take over parenting roles, this has led to abuse if the mother is the one who is ill or deceased. Further the girls rather than the father or sons are required to take care of the sick. Lack of information, caring and support exposes them to traumatic experiences and the risk of contracting HIV and/or other infections, as most of them do not know the status of their parent and not much is said to them.  

 

When both parents are deceased, the eldest girls or should their be several girls who have reached puberty, will be exploited by married men or single men for sexual favours in exchange for financial and material support and in most cases they are at a disadvantage and will have sex on the man’s terms. In most countries where there is no welfare system or child support or strong community support, child headed households are mushrooming with girls engaging in sex to support their families. The situation requires the Church to engage in community services to assist such households.

 

Education

Sex education is more of a graphic nature depicting ways of satisfying a man and very little or no life skills are taught to girls – this is why there are so many teenage pregnancies and high prevalence of infection amongst girls. Girls are not a priority to be educated, and with the rise in female headed households, they are expected to take care of their younger siblings whilst the mother is at work, here too, they are left to their own devices and at most times taken advantage of by men who coax them into liaisons, resulting in Sexually Transmitted Infections and possibly HIV infection. Most Sexually Transmitted Infections are not treated effectively and exposes the girl child consequently to HIV infection. Because of chores and domestic work, girls frequently miss school and are taken advantage of by teachers, who request sexual favours from the girls in return for extra lessons or better grades. Schools are reluctant to suspend or dismiss teachers that abuse these girls due to the dwindling numbers of teachers due to the impact of AIDS and brain drain to industrialised countries – these girls are therefore exposed to HIV infection. Due to culture, boys are rarely required to do domestic chores.

 

Poverty

Due to poverty most parents cannot take care of their children, the girls will engage in sexual activities to subsidise their parent’s income and also take care of their own needs – clothing etc, even school fees. (Cite example of girl – now grown up who needed toiletry and fees). This is not frowned upon; most parents would encourage their daughters and will even joke about the supposed/unknown “in-law”.  In most cases mothers would brag about the unknown suitors. The word in-law is very loosely used in the cultural context – any boy brought home or that the parents are aware of as having an interest in their daughter would be encouraged and called “in-law” and treated as part of the family. This would expose girls to multiple sexual partners long before she eventually gets married – this would be the norm in most traditional areas.

 

Parents have been known to use their girl child as kinsman redeemers. Should the family be in debt they will give their daughter to redeem the family. This practice has been on the increase in northern Malawi, where elderly businessmen have taken advantage of families owing monies to them by demanding their young daughters as payment of debt.

 

Cultural / Social Events

Culture lays great stress on girls as they grow up in communities. They are expected to be complacent (polite in African culture). The church has referred to this as “submission”. Girls are socialized to yield sexual decision making to men. It is improper for girl/woman to make sexual advances toward a man – she would normally be thought of as a prostitute even if married. Thus they would not even suggest using condoms. Girls/women cannot negotiate sex and so must risk infection to please the man. Culture rather than advance a woman/girls status and it imposes restrictions on women and girls in the name of strengthening traditional African values. Social forces therefore subordinate girls and women and facilitate the spread of HIV.

 

Families are not allowed to promote a culture of open discussion of sex, sexuality and the threat of HIV/AIDS to family health. Sex talk is taboo but indulging in the act is not! Outdated cultural values and a male dominated society have been a danger to the life of the girls and women. Discipline and morality among in-school and out-of schoolgirls have declined markedly. Casual sex relationships among the youth have become commonplace due to the lack of counselling. 80% of the population is rural and therefore stuck in cultural values. Moral degradation is in part a failure of the family to fulfill its socialization function. There is very little or no family socialization. Parental activity over children continues to wane because parents or guardians do not have enough time for discussions with their children. Open talk on HIV/AIDS and issues of sex and sexuality is culturally forbidden. This leaves children to the influence of peers, the school and religion that seem to have lost influence over the young generation and families as a whole. This is because of this limited communication between parents/guardians and children on topical issues such as HIV/AIDS and the stresses of growing up.

 

Sexual activities are not thought to be taboo but talking about sex would be. Dances and traditional feasts are normally of an erotic nature and most cultural activities lead to sexual relations between boys and girls. In certain African communities when the girls reach puberty they are housed together in a barn and left to be exposed to ‘sexual education’, they are not restricted in their association or movement. These men also believe that sleeping with virgin girls will be a cure for HIV. In addition, instruments used during initiation rites and female circumcision, like razors and knives and also beauty marks on female faces have also exposed young girls to infection. Certain tribal rites, for girls during puberty where they are expected to engage in sexual intercourse with an unknown relation in most cases a cousin or uncle, known commonly as “hyenas “- for they sneak in at night and have intercourse with girls who have celebrated their puberty. Traditional leaders and counsellors need to be trained and educated on the infection and implications of sexual messages, rites and rituals that are taught at initiation ceremonies. Most of these ceremonies put the girls at a disadvantage as the serostatus of the men is not known. In the case of teenage pregnancies, in most villages traditional midwives are engaged, as there are no hospitals; these girls are rarely counselled or given support/advice.

 

Interventions / Strategies

Most of these rituals and rites are frowned upon by the Church but not openly rebuked. Breaking the silence has been the theme for HIV and AIDS stigma etc but I believe it should be the slogan for communities to open up and speak out against customary practices that are so ungodly and inhuman to say the least. Families need to discuss the moral obligation of parents, communities, schools, to prevent transmission to girls. The key area that the Church needs to address is family – parental responsibility and personal integrity, the sanctity of life – by also addressing the subservient role of women and girls. Emphasis needs to be on men as father figures rather than figures of authority. Urbanisation has destroyed the family set-up and network that existed which was usually well balanced. Peer education and interventions that aim to empower girls and young women through assertiveness and self-esteem building and interpersonal communication and leadership skills development.

 

The church has a major role to play – men’s behaviour must change and boys and young men must be raised differently so that there is a radical change in the way girls and boys relate to each other and how men treat girls and women. Marriage counsellors have often taught the superiority of men and their sexual drive which must always be satisfied. Economic and social empowerment skills should take place for girls whilst still at school. Voluntary counselling and testing be designed to accommodate their special needs in particular youth friendly services that are adequate and accessible to them. The woman and girl in Africa have been a beast of burden and sex object for too long! This in modern day has exposed them to HIV and AIDS. Statistics for Malawi show that the highest prevalence is between the ages of 15-30 and that 80% are girls. Families need to be encouraged to take a stand and explore cultural practices that are contributing to the transmission of HIV in girls in their communities. Explain men and boys attitudes about women and girls, family life and responsibilities for sexual behaviour and abstinence, fidelity can reduce or increase the chances that a girl will be infected by HIV. At a community level, women and children who are infected with HIV need to be supported to live longer and better by living positively. Access for girls to clinical and pastoral counselling at schools and where they can go for counselling, support, services and care without being called “whores”/”prostitutes”. In cases of rape and abuse which has seen the rise in HIV prevalence in girls and sometimes even infants – the legal system has been rather lenient, passing sentences of 6 months imprisonment!

 

  • Promote education to families through the church and ministries to prevent transmission of HIV from parents to their children and men to young girls.
  • Have counselling clinics and talks at schools, churches, feasts, funeral and initiation ceremonies.
  • Educate young girls in life skills and assertiveness and provide information to enable them to make decisions that will protect them and enable them to make judgements in the face of situations that make them vulnerable to unwanted sex and HIV.

 

A strategy seeking a way to find positive ways of supporting the development of positive attitudes towards sex and expression of sexuality among boys and girls need to be developed. Casual recreational view of sex is in part the result of initiation rites for boys and girls in most African communities. Some rites encourage boys to have sex as a demonstration of adulthood while girls sometimes have to experience sex as part of training. This occurs at a very early age in a girl's life circle. Both song and dance in these ceremonies are erotic and full of sexual connotation and imagery. The language is also sexually aggressive in tone. Traditional education systems need to provide sex education, which teaches responsibility, life skills, mutual respect, gender relations, assertiveness and protection from HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections among the youth.  Traditional instructors and counselors themselves need to be reoriented towards content and methodologies that promote development of strong and healthy personalities among boys and girls. Parents need to take a more hands on role in the upbringing of their children. Ensure that they are acquainted with the ceremonies and procedures their children will undergo. Such cultural practices are detrimental to the health of the girl, and entail risks of HIV infections and violate values of personal privacy and human dignity.

 

·        Identification of role models among adults and parents to emulate. 

·        Establish more effective ways of informing and empowering girls/young women

·        Strategically and deliberately investing in the well-being of young girls resulting in powerful positive individual and social behaviour change such as delaying the age of sexual initiation.

·        Through the church and community ensure enabling environment in the home and with the broader community that supports individual agency and choice

·        Set up counselling and testing clinics at schools and communities

·        Listen to girls and young women and involving them in decision making about their reproductive health

·        Work through families and communities to enable the family to acquire information to enable them to work together and develop solutions to problems experienced by girls

·        Ensure girls and young women participate fully in designing and implementing programmes for these to be successful

 

In most African societies age is not really a deterrent to sex in most cases once a girl has reached puberty she is considered of marriageable age and it is therefore a license to engage in sex without restriction. Domestic role of the girl in the cultural setting is very taxing and to a point abusive, the girl is viewed as a domestic resource, whereas the male child is from any domestic duties as a result the earlier the girl identifies a boyfriend she feels the better for her and sooner she will come out of a despondent environment which is a fallacy because it is just a vicious cycle.

 

African women who perform multiple roles in their families are aided by their girl children at an early age and prevent them from going to school due to the burden of caring for younger siblings and household tasks whilst the mothers are at work in the field. Even if the girl child goes to school this usually affects her ability to perform in school and results in teachers taking advantage of her sexually to improve her grades or "help her" in her studies. The girl child has to do household chores before going and after coming from school making school a burden for her. She therefore opts to fall out of school at most times and will be looking forward to getting married as the only option at a very early age. Furthermore, the children are exposed to sex at a very early stage due to the living situation in African culture; as grownups and children share the same rooms. This exposes the girl to incest which is also commonplace and in most cases the mother will condone as fatherly love or at the cost of saving her marriage due to the inability to support herself and children. Most of the women in the villages are illiterate and fully dependent on their husbands, however most of them are in fact the breadwinners - but because of the stigma attached to unmarried women or divorced women they are in a dilemma.

 

·        Girl child labor migration without accompanying parents - poverty.

 

Intergenerational and Transactional Sex

Girls engage in sex with grown up men for monetary gain to support themselves or to be able to get clothing and other items their parents cannot afford to give them. In most cases mothers do not question their children as to how they access material wealth etc. In fact they will even receive gifts from their children knowing full well of the source. Culturally this is not frowned upon and the girls may even face pressure from their parents to engage in relationships for these reasons or in the hope of eventual marriage. A study in four African cities demonstrated a strong correlation between high HIV prevalence and the age difference between partners.

 

Girls will enter relations with men and introduce them to their parents who will refer to these men as "in laws" giving them legitimacy to cohabit with their daughters and welcoming them into their homes. There is a lot of pressure on girls to find husbands and get married, even if it means several failed relationships or marriages. Traditionally there is no courting - girl meets man, man proposes, girl introduces man (most of the time someone who she grew up with) and ends up having sexual relationships. There is a kind of desperation for girls to find a man and get married and move out of their parent’s home. There is a lot of coercion and pressure upon the girl child to get married and not bring shame to the family.  Payment of bride price as "Lobola" allows the couple to get sexually involved albeit that they are not married. The girl is put at risk because the man maybe involved elsewhere also. In most cases pressure to have virgin brides causes parents to marry off their girls as early as 12 years old however there is no pressure on the male to be a virgin. Girls are sought after even by married men as second wives. Cultural values have changed over the years the families were closer and watched over their children closely to ensure that girls were not abused/raped or got entangled in sexual relationships, however, poverty has been an underlying cause that girls also are encouraged to go into prostitution to help their parents. 

 

In the cultural setting marriages are rarely based on love unions and the church has not taught much on relationships nor marriage at all apart from preaching ‘abstention” and due to this when girls have found themselves in sexual relationships/abuse/rape, they are ashamed/afraid to seek help/redress. Sex in the African culture is appreciated more in terms of personal gratification and procreation than in terms of love in an enduring relationship. This casual view of sex reduces the likelihood of abstinence and observance of mutual faithfulness in marriage. Culture puts girls and subsequently women in a subservient position which makes them vulnerable to infection. Lack of education and low education leading ultimately to limited employment skills, poverty and adherence to gender specific role definition disempower girls at a very early stage in their lives making them unable to negotiate for protected sex or to adopt practices that safeguard them from infection etc. Many girls find themselves in polygamous families with men whose wives have died of HIV/AIDS. Men marry young girls to take care of their children. Girls are also required to take care of their sick mothers without training and protection therefore running the risk of HIV infection. In certain African cultures in southern Africa girls have to have children before they can be married off to prove their fertility. Further in certain African tribes there is also female circumcision, which poses a risk to most girls. Another risk is the "mpini" where the witchdoctor may use different razors but he does not wash his hands after every person he attends to so the rubbing of the cuts which are bleeding can transfer the infection to another person because these are open bleeding wounds.

 

Weakening family institutions have considerably aggravated the situation in village settings, with migrant workers and farmers who travel to the towns and visit bars and sleep with prostitutes and thereafter infect their wives and seek younger girls in the event they are infected. Very rarely do men disclose their serostatus to their wives. It would not be “macho” to do so. In Botswana touching of breasts by boys and men thought to be friendly act. Attitudes towards girls' education and household task burden of girls are fundamentally affected by the web of poverty as well.

 

·        Example of girl who needed panties where the mother told her to find a man!)

·        Example of church elder who abused all his daughters and the mother told them "He is your father"

·        Strategies to improve the plight of the girls

·        Development of more positive female gender roles is essential

 

The rise in female headed households has also affected the girl child - the burden of child-care is increasingly falling on the elder female siblings who are often forced to drop out of school whilst the mother is at work in the field.    

 

 

Resources:

Somebody Cares HBC Malawi

World Bank Technical Paper No 326

Govt of Malawi – National HIV/AIDS Policy

SAFAIDS News 1 – 2002

Women and AIDS – SWAA (Aug 2003)

The AIDS handbook – J Hubley

Survivor Africa – Cape Town Diocese

Perspective – African Journal on HIV/AIDS

AIDSCAP – FHI Behaviour Change

Facing the Future Together UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa

Gender AIDS – Mark Schools

What Religious Leaders can do about HIV/AIDS – Action for Children and Young People – UNDP, UNICEF

Gender and reproductive health and HIV programs –USAID

Thursday 16th September: Discussion of Plenary Session.

Reaching and Protecting Girls

 

Main points:

  • Break the silence, talk about sex
  • Be part of the solution not the problem
  • We, as a church, need to ACT!
  • Need to empower the men as well as the women

 

 

Detailed account: ‘Reaching and Protecting Girls’ Discussion

 

Discussion led by Thuli, Starfish

Challenged by what Theresa was saying; 2 main questions:

1)                 Do you see anything wrong in your culture? If so, what can we do?

2)                 What is our role in the lives of the children in the community? What do we need to do,  as provider organisations, besides provide food? 

 

Q:  How bad is this problem?  Is it a huge amount?

A:  In a village workshop setting, in Malawi – 8 out of 10 women and girls agreed that it is happening. In these workshops about sexual abuse almost all the girls have had some abuse or another. Incest is on the rise. They say that if it is your father or your uncle it is not considered wrong it is seen as fine because he ‘loves’ you.

 

Touched by her boldness. This is not a woman issue or a man issue. Be proud to be a man, be proud to be a woman. My understanding as a human is to help another who can’t.

 

We are going through a lot of changes. Better to be in a Christian culture. If we were to obey the rules for living, given by God, most of our problems would be eliminated. The Church should stand up and teach about sexual relationships. Everyone wants to sleep around. I have been a Teacher at a secondary school for 14 years. Sexual favours were commonly asked of girl students in exchange for passing marks and admission. Adult women often get jobs by sleeping with their employer.

 

If it about how you dress then the first man that you see must rape you. I was forced to go to a school that was started in private by the Principal – our guilt lies in our silence. This Principal is a Pastor; he’s been to Bible School and is looked at as a man of life, respected and trusted with the children. He was sleeping with girls during school time in his office. Eventually one girl told a teacher and the Principal was given a four-year sentence.

 

I feel I am challenged and I want to be part of the solution not the problem. I am proud to be a man and I am glad that there are women who can stand up and fight this thing. We have a responsibility to show men what it is to be a man. To be is a man is to care.

 

I am so stirred this morning. I know these things are happening in our community and I want to say thank you for your boldness, we need more people who will speak out.

 

We need to train the caregivers to break the silence at home. If we teach people to talk about sensitive issues then that is a way to start.

Thembalethu HBC

Shared what her organisation is doing:

Go out to train caregivers – people living with orphans.

Train how to identify the trauma by looking at the behaviour of the child.

Find out that the people living with the children are scared to talk to children.

Gather orphans and have counselling classes where they share their experiences and hurts.

From that we learnt many things and were able to start helping them like referring their cases to relevant places.

To make sure that we are doing something for the children.

 

Thuli, Starfish

Q: Is the church doing enough?

·                    It is like we haven’t started yet.  When there are activities at the church or conference like this one, the majority of those attending are women and they leave the girls behind to take care of the younger children, brothers and the men. 

·                    Churches don’t reach the men because they don’t go to church. 

·                    There needs to be a paradigm shift in society.

·                    Type of gospel needs to change – not prosperity/blessing.

·                    What are the churches doing in the community? 

·                    When a girls gets married, the women go to premarital counselling but not the men.

·                    Need to challenge the culture where you live, if you are a man

·                    Teach girls their rights and empower them right to say no and voice out.

 

Jackie, Bethlehem

Prostitution is a problem in our country – cause is poverty and abuse of young girls in our families.  Talk to street children- boys were coming to the centre with STDs they get money on the streets and then at night they go to the prostitutes.  Street girls who came to the centre fighting over 50 Rand for them that they were given that morning by a man who slept with them on his way to work.   Men who go to prostitutes and then sleep with their wives are also a problem as they pass the HIV virus on to their wives and bring it from the cities into the villages.

Empower community with life skill programmes.  And encourage people to

When a perpetrator is within the family they protect that person and not the child. Even sometimes the girl is chased out of the house and was suicidal.  As long as we keep quiet one day it will happen to our child

 

Makane, Theological Pastors Training 

Students are under a lot of pressure because of the pressure. 60 pastors in the college asked if they are preaching about AIDS and sex.  If you are perceived to be damaging the culture you can get fined. This was experienced by our group of Pastors who were fined, when preaching in church, for talking against ancestral worship and other issues such as the spread of the HIV virus. There is too much fear to talk about AIDS in public.

 

Diamond Mugisha, MINIVUM Church, Burundi

There has been a war for many years in Burundi. Due to the war, women and girls are in trouble. The soldiers in the government’s army are raping women and children, as young as six years old. Power sharing is a big problem. If you have a gun, you are seen as a king, you can act like a king and no one can stop you. If you cry for justice, the government and the soldiers say you can’t have justice when there is war. Burundi has 2000 soldiers, the UN doesn’t pay but Burundi does. Soldiers get paid to bring peace but their job in Burundi is not peace but having sex with prostitutes.  Minister defence said that it is difficult because they act they way that they do at home (here in SA). Everyone in Burundi curses the South African army; they are considered the worst perpetrators by the local people, more than soldiers from any other country.

 

Thuli, Starfish

What is the way forward?

 

                                    Abuse of power

Problem à                Poverty                                   What are we going to do?

                                    Fear etc…

 

1.                  Need to break the silence

2.                  Church needs to change the focus

3.                  Abuse of power

4.                  Poverty

5.                  Where do we go from here what do we do. 

6.                  How are we going to protect the children?

 

Lesedi, Youth Alive

Works to heighten HIV awareness by teaching girls to take charge of their lives. It is contagious, a snow ball effect, once they take charge of their life the feeling of empowerment spreads to other girls.

 

In pastors fellowships, such issues are not discussed. Church targets all ages. Pastors are the people that individuals respect but they need to work. Need to bridge the gap between Non-Governmental Organisations and Governmental Organisations.

 

Victoria,  SOS, Namibia

We have an organisation called men for church advocate on behalf of women and children. Men listen to each other much better than they listen to women. Maybe men here can start talking about sex and rape. We facilitate the networking group of people who discuss it and then go out and train others. Get serious members of army to be trained who can then train others.

 

Waitress

We are implementing an idea – there is a forum where we are. You must fish people who are not in the net already, we have started a prayer week where priests will go around with the caregivers and pray for them so they have someone to talk to and meet with them. A format that we use – Valerie, a school social worker who works pro bono, she has an emotion chart and asks the child to put their name by an emotional face. It is really working.

 

Church – we point fingers at the pastors and all the Christians – they must pray with their children every night so that they can grow up to fear God.

 

Mandi, Starfish:

2 lessons we learnt from our projects:

UNFPH aids awareness, focused on empowering girls and women. Found men knew their rights. The project was successful in empowering the women however the women were empowered to such an extent that when they went home they were disempowered. This experience highlighted the need to also empower the men. Secondly, we trained girls for counselling and as volunteers. The activities we set up were at youth centres that we discovered were not really accessible to girls as they were in the activities which took place in the evening. The girls were vulnerable to rape whilst walking to the centre. If this wasn’t a problem then the male basketball coach asked for sexual favours. Watch what stereotypes your organisations have.


Thursday 16th September: Workshop.

Reaching and Protecting Girls

 

Main points:

·        “They will know you by your fruits not your gifts”

·        Education and raising awareness is all important

·        BREAK THE SILENCE, BE TRANSPARENT

 

Detailed account: ‘Reaching and Protecting Girls’ Workshop

 

Group Discussion: How can we protect the girls?

 

Tateni

·                    Child headed families of just girls are the most vulnerable

·                    Bonded with supporters

·                    Donors provide for burglar proofing house

·                    Communicate with schools

·                    Find parents to adopt them

·                    Life skills is a dire need

 

Tembalethu

·                    Mend structures, burglar proofing

·                    No funding available

·                    Counselling for girls

·                    Advocate à police, lay charges, magistrate for protection order

·                    Move children from vulnerable situation immediately

·                    Education, stress its importance

 

Educate about AIDS and HIV

Is there a skills development model for girls after school? Do things with children to teach them to use their hands. Don’t discriminate against and exclude the girls.

 

Hope with Homes

·        Identify orphans and vulnerable children

·        Identify caregivers

·        Removal is a last resort

·        Integrate into existing families

·        Neighbour helping neighbour: your child is my child

·        Girl child 0-18 per child care act etc

·        Properly trained guidance teachers

·        Strengthen “real’ Christian schools

·        Educate community through churches and other stakeholders

·        Support groups for children, trust

·        Powerful people need to speak out, stand up

·        Sunday school à open about home circumstances

·        Protecting legal rights

NB:

·        Centres accessible

·        Support group

·        Men’s groups stand for community. Responsibilities, protecting the girl-child

·        Involve women and children in decision making

·        Value clarification models

·        Child protection units that work

·        Involve school teachers in psychosocial support of children

 

Theresa’s conclusions

“They will know you by your fruit not your gifts”

All you need is one radical voice

 

 

Break the silence: accountability and transparency

Thursday 16th September: Workshop.

OVC Leadership Development Program

 

Main points:

·        OVC Leadership Development Program encompasses: Life skills, Team building, Leadership development, Discipleship

  • Youth leadership empowers orphans and de-stigmatises the role of orphan, Helps networking in the community, prevent feelings of isolation
  • Need to develop list of potential resource providers
  • Needs to be coupled with adequate follow up including continuous monitoring and evaluation

 

Detailed account: ‘OVC Leadership Development Program’ Workshop

 

What is Masoyi Home Based Care doing with regards to the OVC Youth Leadership Development?

 

Florence Mbokazi, Project Co-ordinator, Masoyi Home Based Care

 

  • Program initiated to address several issues among 1900 orphans

 

This program encompasses

  • Life skills
  • Team building
  • Leadership development
  • Discipleship

 

Why?

  • Develop future leaders
  • Empower OVC to be leaders in the home care for younger siblings
  • Develop leader for OVC program prepare for further education help them from preschool –Grade 12
  • Help with networking in the community, to prevent feeling of isolation, give them opportunities to meet other OVC in the community

 

How did it start?

  • Teachers /volunteers helped us select 12 OVCs (through Network with teachers)
  • Select between 12 and 18 years
  • Send them on team building exercise (Eagle Adventure)
  • Invite them to MHBC office to show them how the project is run (children become part of support network for our OVC)
  • Ask orphans what they want to learn( involve them in outcomes) let the children define the need

 

What have we done so far?

  • We have selected the first group
  • Sent them on team building activity
  • Introduce steering committee for OVC
  • Have sent them for computer training
  • Use group to meet with other OVC (communication link between orphans and project )
  • Train the team to identify problems in the community using collages

 

What results do we have?

  • School marks
  • Good results with computer class (want to duplicate next year)
  • Personal development for exams

 

The way forward

  • We need to duplicate groups of 12
  • Provide opportunities for higher education
  • Development of life skills programs (empower OVC)
  • Increase responsibility to orphans for running their own OVC program

 

Masoyi Home Based Care is undergoing training in community development. We need to be able to identify needs in the community. The collage is a method of identifying needs among orphans, volunteers etc. Female orphans used this method to depict life of an orphan

 

Group 1 – Questions and Discussion

What do you understand by leadership development?

Is leadership lacking in orphans? If yes why?

How are leaders developed?

Where does leadership develop in “Completing the cycle of Care?”

At which stage of the caring process does it fit in?

When should leadership and development start- which age group?

Should the focus only be on youth?

 

Leadership cannot be defined but understood

It includes taking responsibility and being accountable; positive role modelling

Everyone is a potential leader

The qualities of leaders

·                    Initiators and facilitators

·                    They maximize the skills and the potential of the people around them

·                    Good leaders are good servants/followers

·                    Proactive, innovative, creative, servant heart

 

In child headed households children are forced to take on leadership roles

Leadership is not lacking it just needs to be developed in a positive way

The fact that they get up in the morning and “press on” means that they have leadership skills 

Negative leadership exists in gangs etc

 

How do we develop positive leadership?

RPL-recognition of prior learning- First assess what they can do what skills levels they already have recognize them and affirm them

Give them tasks and opportunities to lead exercise their abilities

Well defined programs relevant to a particular stage age group

Create linkages with key stakeholders

Youth leadership empowers orphans and de-stigmatises the role of orphan

Introducing orphans from different communities

Create an environment for self expression

 

When to start?

As soon as possible cannot prescribe age

As soon as possible we should be teaching children self leadership

The focus should not be on youth only

 

 Recommendations

  • Integration of Leadership development into the whole phase of “The cycle of care” 
  • Focus should be on secondary level “selecting the 12”
  • Leadership skills can be taught at each age but skill should be appropriate to age level
  • Leadership is part of life skills; cannot be separated

 

Group 2 – Questions and Discussion

Purpose and advantages/benefits of a leadership development programme?

Who should initiate such LDP?

What should the roles and responsibilities of youth be?

Which resources in the community could be utilized to establish and manage a LDP?

What should the roles of the care givers be in the LDP?

 

The purpose

The orphan will take ownership/leadership of themselves

The OVC will discover their strengths

The OVC will be empowered to be a leader in the community

 

Benefits

OVC will reach their potential, become a role model in the community, discover their own strengths, and experience increased self esteem

 

Who are the role players?

Everyone who is involved in life of the OVC including teachers, extended family, church leadership, NGOs, caregivers, orphans themselves

 

Resources

Schools, community leaders, libraries, churches, other organizations

 

Recommendations

  • Initiate a consultation process with all players
  • Research existing programs in order to learn and adopt new activities
  • Any new program needs to be introduced properly so that there is “buy in” in order to guarantee implementation success; the leadership of the project needs to convince the staff of the HUGE benefits associated with introducing a leadership program to an already overburdened program

 

Group 3 – Questions and Discussion

Who should determine the choice of topics/activities?

OVC orphans supported by project team

 

Topics

1.                  Character building

2.                  Self esteem building

3.                  Communication skills

4.                  Team building

5.                  Project and time management

6.                  Developmental assessment personal growth/discipline

7.                  Self management

8.                  Entrepreneurship

9.                  Independence

10.             Conflict management

11.             Sex education

12.             Cultural Norms and gender

13.             Spiritual growth

14.             Psycho social support

 

Activities

1.                  Sport

2.                  Computer skills

3.                  Art and Drama

4.                  Music /Drama

5.                  Educational Activity

6.                  Bible Study

7.                  Project Design

8.                  Debate

9.                  Obstacle Course

 

 

Criteria for selection

Size                15-20

Mixed gender

Junior              11-14

Senior             15-18 

Youth               19-25

Mix OVC and children from balanced homes to avoid the stigma associated with being an orphan ratio 80% OVC 20% balanced home

 

Recommendations

  • Selection criteria -children who are trustworthy who can keep confidences
  • Need a list of service providers or organizations that can help deliver services
  • Need to develop list of potential resource providers
  • Need to develop a  marketing and public awareness programs-directed at donors, also to enable to mix OVC with children from balanced homes, help to bring in referrals, increase community awareness
  • Need to train people from within our organizations as leaders/facilitators
  • Needs to be coupled with adequate follow up including continuous monitoring and evaluation

 

Thursday 16th September: Workshop.

Churches and Community Schools

 

Main points:

·        Need for models that bring schools and churches together

·        We are sitting on a time bomb in terms of HIV infection rates, education is needed now.

·        Need for a holistic approach, church + schools to include feeding centres.

 

Detailed account: ‘Churches and Community Schools’ Workshop

 

  • Name:  where you come from, expectations for the workshop.
  • People should be saved in school and pray for the sick and destitute children.
  • Develop a way to work with pastors to help the children to gain trust of adults and community.
  • Pastors a church and would like to open our eyes as a church to reach out to street children and get them into a community school. Wants to learn how to mobilise the church.
  • Schools were built by churches in other nations in the past. Wants to know what Africans can do for other Africans in terms of education.
  • Wants to learn how church can be motivated to mobilise its resources on building community schools (Zambia).
  • Role of the church towards community building. Young kids spiritually. Relationship of the church to school governing bodies.
  • Many of our grantees and implementing Community Based Organisations, wants to learn how to link them with churches wants to hear what works.
  • We have had challenges in making church schools sustainable.  (Mozambique)
  • Interested to see God change the way the devil expecting us to cry every day. God must help us.
  • Has 350 students at Little Seeds – most are preschool teachers.  Wants to conduct a survey to hear what is happening where and what perspectives on community schools and country specifics especially in connection with government.
  • Looking for models that bring schools and churches together.
  • Number of our partners are Faith Based Organisations and looking for a strategic document for a local church.
  • Who attends community schools?  Where does funding and teachers come from? What is the quality compared to government schools.
  • Schools are the best way to reach children and that is where most vulnerable children are so that if churches want to reach them.
  • Want to hear about children.
  • Church must open their eyes to many things I am here to get something that I can give to the community from the church not the community can give to us.
  • There are children who are not in school at all – to get schooled through existing church buildings.

 

Eric, Hands @ Work, Zambia

  • Give an overview of the Zambia scenario and then use that as a basis for discussion to then apply concepts of community schools to where we come from.
  • Community schools (church + schools) are not a new thing.
  • 1st missionaries also brought schools.
  • Along the way the church abandoned schools to focus only on church.
  • Must go back to our roots and continue from where the 1st missionaries stopped.
  • Sub Saharan Africa 20mil HIV orphans by 2010 – UN prediction.
  • So we are sitting on a time bomb.
  • Home Based Care started 3 years ago.
  • Most of these clients actually die leaving behind the orphans and vulnerable.
  • At 1st our idea was only HBC and not schools, but as they died we had a relationship with them then not fair to abandon the family. Still have a link with the family.
  • Schools in Zambia are not free though the government calls it free. User fee is expected. Most people cannot manage it.
  • Most of our clients died leaving 5-7 children who need to be fed and go to school.  
  • One adult person is connected to about 7 children.
  • After the death of this person they stop going to school.
  • There is absolutely no social scheme there at all.
  • Out of 500 patients in 2003 150 died. This leaves lots of children.
  • Currently have 15 community schools – 1095 kids.
  • How do we start community schools?
  • Began with HBC not even planning to go into schools.

Criteria in setting up a community school

  • Must be the vision/ initiative of the local pastor – we go to churches to sensitise them about the need for community schools.  Inform them of the number of orphans who are not going to school.  If you feel the need come to0 us and we will show you – the church must be there for a purpose and meet the needs of the people otherwise it is no use.  Sometimes they already have the vision but do not know how to put it into reality. Hands at work do not start any school – it must be the community.
  • Local pastor identifies and appoints local teachers – volunteers from the congregation.
  • Local pastor identifies and provides premises on which the school can be run – use a church building.  In Zambia the building is only used on Sundays and it is underutilized the rest of the week.  Use existing infrastructure.
  • Hands @ Work then helps provide technical assistance to establish school and train volunteers by providing in-house volunteer training every 2 weeks. Pastor will quickly go appoint Sunday school teachers. Then Hands @ Work go in to equip them to teach the kids as in material for preschool.  We are in our infancy stage – know what we are supposed to be doing but we don’t have the right personnel.  We give them the materials and exercise books to children and pencils.
  • Usually OVC come to these schools hungry and most of them have one meal a day. It is very difficult to teach a child who is starving. A community school must have a feeding program existing alongside the school. At least breakfast. That is also a motivation for orphans to attend school.
  • Local church is expected to support the volunteer teachers with incentives. Hands @ Work only assists when it has funds available. Telling them that it is their school and the money we give is to supplement you. Donor funding is always erratic. We do not have a lot of money. Churches are poor they struggle to support their pastors never mind the volunteer teachers. That is very difficult – they have a heart but they are human beings.

 

Qualifications for volunteer teachers:

  • They must be born again as Christians.
  • Must be a committed and submissive member of that local church.
  • Must be willing to attend in-house volunteer training every 2 weeks.
  • Must have a sense of calling to children’s ministry. Conviction to work with children. Explain that they have to sacrifice and that we cannot employ them. If we don’t have the funds will you teach with out any pay?
  • Must be willing to teach even without a salary or incentive.

 

How can it be implemented where you are coming from? 

In SA pre-primary schools would work well. In community schools we say even if you don’t have school uniform you can come. Children want to be in a place where they are accepted. They can come in their own clothes – government schools require uniforms

  • Teachers are helped with transport
  • Quality is compromised – teachers are not qualified.  Volunteer teachers
  • Building is substandard
  • Most schools don’t have desks they write on the floor
  • Use the government curriculum and added other things to make it more effective.  Most important thing is to teach the child to read.

 

How are we developing this model?

  • Encouraged to use local resources and existing infrastructure.  Where you can’t, Hands @ Work will help you.
  • Sometimes there is no church in particular community.  If I find there is no church that can handle it then I start a school.  Otherwise I use an existing church and encourage them to realise that they have the solution themselves.
  • Help church to solve is own problem of OVC.
  • Income generating activities is encouraged to support the school. Most of the time donor funding doesn’t work. So we need to find ways to start small business to sustain their school.

 

Questions

How can volunteer teachers can be motivated to carry out the work of community schools?

  • Make sure that the children have the resources that they need
  • Need to give it to the school board that can hand it out and take it in every day.
  • Good training motivates – success motives
  • 2 days a month is not adequate. Initial training must be increase and followed up. In order for them to be motivated is to skill them.
  • Need peer/group support.
  • Before the school starts operating things need to happen like identify a good church – they identify people who have education and then they are sent for proper training.
  • What about communities in a desperate situation like Zambia? They will not have a qualified teacher training place in the whole area it’s the heart and not the skill that is important.
  • The least they can do is to train the people who are going to carry out the work even in a desperate situ that is the priority of resources.
  • Training gives them food incentives for their families.
  • In SA where you can generate basic funds.
  • Motive must be the heart.
  • But they do need to survive. In Mozambique it is subsistence economy – we had to be flexible with the timetable to accommodate farming. Children can work in exchange for fees.
  • Working long hours is de-motivating.
  • Parents seem to leave kids there all day long.
  • Show them what it looks like where there is no training and where there is.
  • If it is a mutually beneficial situation – e.g. if there is a food garden, do the vegetables or the proceeds go to the volunteer trainers?
  • Twin a school. One more privileged school adopts another – sports events. Or a church can adopt a school or a business can adopt a school with a focus on long term commitment.
  • Donations for volunteers.

 

Discuss how you would mobilise the church/community in participating in running the community schools where you are

  • Don’t make it too burdensome.
  • Everyone can do a little bit.
  • More people involved for shorter periods.
  • Key people in the church to get around and visit existing programmes to se other people doing it.
  • Where are the good models to go to look at?
  • Take willing volunteers and organise them to shadow a preschool teacher in a real school environment hands on.
  • We have a lot of Christian ladies working in another primary school.
  • Issue that comes up again is a proper plan and training. 
  • Model is needed.
  • If we can get a model and get people who have some experience to be properly trained.
  • Get as many people involved as possible, many simple workshops introduce games and activities and ways of communications. Awareness about the school.
  • Decentralising into a number of families – share lesson planning and preparation.

 

Discuss how a church or community can develop a sustainable feeding program using their own resources (not by writing a proposal)

  • Vegetable gardens in Zambia in each school.
  • Can be done in rural areas here where resources are the land.
  • Don’t buy from the shop.
  • Food gardens – sustainable all the students work on it together – how to buy and sell. They can use it as a teaching school.
  • In urban areas there is not space but you can use potato bags and window boxes.
  • Challenge with informal settlement there is really no space and the roof can be used.
  • Couldn’t local government be convinced to give land? But it is hard when they think that the money is for something else.
  • Depends where you are.
  • People can contribute from communal farming.
  • Commercial farms can donate seconds.

 

Suggest some of the things Hands at Work ought to be doing in running community schools

  • Maybe they can do some form of training programme before the school opens
  • If it is hard to get professional people involved in HBC, maybe it is hard to get professional teachers?
  • What about the idea of outside volunteers? Or does that reduce the sustainability of the program
  • We had 2 volunteers from Denmark. But the language gets in the way of teaching. Outsider should always be involved in facilitation but not involved directly with the children
  • De-worming programs even before feeding programs – 25% of the food for the kids goes to the worms.
  • Before implementation proper planning setting the targets.
  • Have a board made up of representatives of all stakeholders.
  • Set up farm school around Grahamstown and in the township there are a number of women who have started pre schools in their own homes. Neighbours leave their kids.
  • To think big think small – lots of home schools.
  • Toy library chairs and table.
  • Wrong motives and lack of training and no monitoring.
  • Church buildings themselves are usually not good to develop a proper preschool, no proper facilities.
  • Environmental education.
  • What about making a prerequisite that if you send your kid to a community school then the parent has to have some participation from time to time.

 

Discuss how the quality of education can be raised in these schools.

  • Foreign volunteer teachers help to take off the burden.
  • Bongane stated: In the community in this country there is a need for preschool 2-6 that has quality teachers and curriculum.
  • Orphans should mix in with children.
  • Other children are carrying the orphan kids – those that are not getting sponsorship.
  • If the teacher is not getting remuneration they are not going to last because that school is not a model it is way substandard.
  • Teachers that they trained and separate into groups.
  • When you are starting a school there is always the problem – the pastor has the vision and they get swamped – there must be set limits – they can’t all be taken care of.
  • Small is beautiful – if you get involve with preschool work fist have people prepared. Start several home groups and the pastor must follow up.
  • Pastor is usually the worst person to know how to start a school project.
  • The pastor and leadership must go the road before they jump in and start something.
  • What we do to avoid nepotism potential:  all of our schools have a pastor acting as a principle. Where there is not a problem with finances is when the pastor sees the community of a school board – representatives of local government parents, church, a group that are jointly responsible for finances and supervision.
  • Have to have a proper committee with the right people.
  • Churches are reluctant to use non-church people, Why?

Friday 17th September: Plenary Session.

The Next Step…

 

Main points:

  • Psychosocial Support à quality of life
  • Real change needs to happen on a societal and community level if we are to address the needs of millions of children
  • Psychosocial support needs to happen in your house, with you children, with your neighbour’s children, with those children you see on the street. Not in a clinical room with a workbook, the numbers who need reaching are too high.

 

Detailed account: ‘The Next Step’ Plenary Session

 

FACTS

  • The number of people living with HIV/AIDS globally is 36.1 million, of whom 25.3 million live in sub-Saharan Africa
  • 95% of the WORLD’S orphans live in Africa
  • There are 13.2 million children (under 15 years) whose mothers have died of AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic.

( source: UNAIDS and WHO December 2000)

Who am I?

  • Explain credentials, but who am I really - a nobody!
  • You people - are what matters, you are doing it, moulding futures, have faith in yourselves!

 

Take a moment - what did you come here for?

  • networking
  • contacts
  • to gain resources

 

We are all here because of these three facts, because these three facts are TRUE!

 

What is the next step?

  • This conference is about the next step in caring for orphans and vulnerable children.
  • Hands @ Work in Africa believes the next step is psychosocial support.

 

What is psychosocial support?

  • Food warmth, clothing and shelter are primary needs. Psychosocial support is about quality of life it is a child right…..Psychosocial support for children affected and /or infected by HIV/AIDS is directly linked to the rights listed in the UN convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are especially vulnerable to maltreatment or exploitation and a child cannot be physically secure without also being psychologically secure. Therefore, in order to seriously respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights, it is vital their psychological needs are met.
  • Psychosocial support: Fancy term, lots of training? ‘Fluffy’, complicated, ‘professional’ word,
  • It means quality of life, it sounds fancy but its not. It is anything that enables children and adults to feel secure, loved, understood, safe and able to start to express their feelings safely.

 

  • The reality of what we have heard about and talked about over the last two days…. is so huge, and so horrific, it’s makes us feel too uncomfortable to sit with it so we look for quick fixes, we want solutions; a training pack that will tell what to do to make these children whole again….in 6 easy steps! I don’t have any easy answers…… I don’t think there are any to address such large numbers of orphans…..
  • its not what you (as 1 person) can do but what can we do as a group, a group of voices, caring and loving -  we bring hope through our actions,
  • Real change needs to happen on a societal and community level if we are to address the needs of millions of children.
  • ‘We need to talk to our children’ but I hear so many of you saying HOW? What actually is psychosocial support? How do we do it? It is all to do with how you talk but how can you talk when….

Ø      Children should be seen and not heard,

Ø      Children shouldn’t look adults in the eyes

Ø      Children are naughty if they show feelings of hurt and anger through their actions

 

How can we expect children to talk when the above is happening?

  • How many children do you know who’ve been abused that sit quietly in a chair and cry and talk eloquently about their difficulties and their feelings….? If we wait for children to act like this so we can ‘PSYCHO SOCIAL them’ we will be waiting a very long time!
  • It will be detrimental to encourage children to express themselves in a ‘session’ of therapy and then send them back into their world where they are punished for ‘acting out’ in daily life….
  • Psychosocial support is in your tone of voice
  • It needs to happen in your house, with you children, with your neighbour’s children, with those children you see on the street. Not in a clinical room with a workbook, the numbers who need reaching are too high..
  • Children are constantly reminded of their spiritual life/ how they should act and be, but how you talk, speak, and look at your children speaks volumes…

 

Current Obstacles to providing Psychosocial support

  • Cultural issues, lack of openness to death, taboos regarding talking about sex
  • Lack of training, resources and funding
  • Stigma, discrimination (even the church stigmatizes ‘promiscuous girls’, but how long ago were they “just” ‘abused girls’?)

 

Communities can give gifts of

  • Providing a caring community environment
  • Providing children with a sense of belonging
  • Appreciating the accomplishment of children
  • Encouraging mutual respect between adults and children
  • Giving children a voice in their families and communities
  • Providing opportunities for a child to express their feelings
  • Emphasising the importance of working together
  • Supporting the development of common values and beliefs
  • Giving equal value to the development of boys and girls

 

How communities can meet a child’s emotional needs

  • Raising communities awareness to support the emotional needs of children
  • Forming support groups for guardians (especially child headed households)
  • Encouraging children to collect items to remind children of their deceased (memory boxes), life story work

 

How communities can meet a child’s social needs

  • Encouraging and supporting activities outside of school (sports, art, singing, drama)
  • Spending time with orphans and children with difficult lives, helping them cope with various daily chores, taking them out, playing with them
  • Forming support and play group for children (kids clubs, youth clubs, drop in centres)
  • Training community aunties and uncles on educating children o how to socialise and prevent HIV infection

 

We can satisfy children’s needs without money

  • Love, consistency, commitment, time, hands, ears and hearts can be used to great effect.
  • So what can you do? I want to encourage you, to challenge you and empower you to go back to your org and homes and do something extra/different, however small, you people here are visionaries / missionaries in your field
  • After Wed and Thurs I was ready to get up, go out and do something, anything! I want each person here to leave here today, go back to their orgs enriched and ready to do more.
  • To think seriously about our role, our manner, our agendas
  • Prayer is good and vital but in addition, we need to get out and be the people who are strengthening our children
  • Bible verse, woman by the well, prayer is good but we also need to be the people bringing the water to that woman,

 

What can you do now?

·     Don’t get stuck, thinking ‘but I don’t know anything, I’m not trained….’ That will come but you can do something right now….

Ø                  Don’t ask lots of questions,

Ø                  Try to understand the child’s point of view , what they are saying to you,

Ø                  Repeat back what they say to show you have understood…

Ø                  Reinforce (say positive statements) about the good things a child is doing, even if there is little to reinforce….find something, anything!

 

Story of approach for Psychosocial Support in Lula

Aim: To set up a therapeutic curriculum within the preschool structure of the Lula Centre. However, when the Centre opened we realised that this curriculum would not be effective in the short term due to the approach taken by the teacher and assistants. They needed training to be able to act in a psychosocially supportive manner throughout the entire school day and not just during these therapeutic sessions. If this training was not given the therapeutic curriculum could have been detrimental for these children as the sessions encouraged children to open up and express their feelings which they were then not ‘allowed’ to do throughout the rest of the day. This is an important learning point and highlights the importance of preparation and understanding of general principles of an approach.

 

Practical ways to provide Psychosocial support, right now:

1.                  Life skills and parenting skills programs

2.                  Community / Church activities (dancing, drama, singing, sports)

3.                  Support groups and mentoring programs

 

  • You all have the skills and strengths already
  • Start small, don’t wait for training to happen,
  • Get the children off the streets during the evenings
  • Break the silence, not just for abuse, but for taboos as well, the stigma of being HIV and the stigma of being an orphan
  • Use each other, use contacts and start on the ground….

 

End of presentation

  1. I’d like everyone to stand up… Think of the line in the worship song we sang this morning ‘When mountains fall, I will stand’

 

  1. Step up to the front if you think Christians should act. If you love children and care about their needs, if you want to do something more. If you are really serious and ready to start making a difference.

 

  1. if you want to stand up and be counted as part of the solution,

 

  1. NOW IS THE TIME TO BE ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE!

 

  1. PowerPoint slide show of ‘Masoyi Home Based Care Painting Project’, July 2004.

 

 

 

Are you ready for the Next Step?