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Name of project:
Support and Counseling for Vulnerable
Children - VC
Project duration:
3 years (2006 - 2009)
Total budget:
C$300.000 (SAR 1,800.000)
Problem Statement
Mpumalanga's population is
about 3 million. The province’s demography is composed
of more of the former homelands than any other province
in South Africa, so it tends to be fragmented. The
social alienation that is the legacy of apartheid is
thus sensed acutely by Mpumalanga's children. Transport
corridors like the Maputo Corridor are known to be more
devastated by HIV/AIDS than most areas. There is rampant
unemployment and crime in the townships surrounding
Nelspruit and young people are the major victims of
HIV/AIDS and poverty.
SA’s constitution states
that everyone has a right to a basic education. This
means that all children between the ages of 7 and 15, or
in grades 1 to 9, must go to school. Good quality
education is essential to provide the foundation for
lifelong learning and the framework for human
development. In order to encourage vulnerable children to stay in
school, we need to equip teachers and others in the
community with a greater awareness of what these
children are facing. Primarily we need to address the
stigma and the accompanying irrational fear that is
still associated with HIV/AIDS.
There is virtually no
training available for the average classroom teacher in
the area of dealing with these special needs children.
Two teachers from each district are trained by the
Department of Education, but the course is long, there
is a lot of material to digest and the average teacher
does not get the practical skills that s/he needs to
cope in the classroom.
Similar situations exist
in other areas and countries. It is our goal to
construct and operate similar camps for orphans and
vulnerable children in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia and
Malawi during the next three years.
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Plan of Action
 During
2003 & 2004, DTC4L ran a pilot project funded by the ETDP-SETA.
The plan of action outlined below was scaled up and
implemented during November/December 2005 with excellent
results. The feedback from caregivers and teachers
about the children who attended these camps has exceeded
our expectations.
The design of this project
is composed of 4 components. It features the
“cascading” effect:
-
Develop
teacher-advisors in 200 target schools in Mpumalanga
in counseling skills and awareness of how they can
create “child friendly” classrooms
-
Train a team of
parents and community volunteers in each school in how
to run “Kids Clubs” after school to support these OVC
-
Run 1-week long camps
at Camp Orchard for OVC using the volunteer counselors and
advisors to work with 50 needy children from each
school
-
Assist schools to set
up Kids Clubs to support the orphans and vulnerable
children
The goal is to expand the program
to another 200 schools in Mpumalanga Province where it will
impact at least 5000 more teachers.
-
Using materials
already developed, we will train 200 teacher-advisors
from 200 schools in Mpumalanga
-
These teacher-advisors
will then train 25 teachers in their schools
-
250 caregivers
(parents and community volunteers) will also be
trained, to assist with kids clubs and camps
-
200 youth volunteers
will be trained in counseling skills and running kids
clubs
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Outputs
-
200 teacher-advisors
-
250 caregivers trained
-
90 youth volunteers
trained
-
8 training
events (25 teachers in each) in 12 months successfully
implemented
-
200 training events in
each of 200 schools completed
-
200
kids support clubs successfully initiated in those
schools
-
10 one-week camps
supported by youth and community volunteers
C4LCanada is aware of the
need to include all parties in the development of this
project and practices what it
preaches about sound development practice. All the
stakeholders are involved at all stages of the
project cycle. Primary schools tend to participate more
willingly in training events than high schools in the
communities that are being targeted.
Impact
"UNICEF is challenging
governments, local leaders, teachers and young people to
help transform schools and education systems - centered
not only on reading and writing, but on preventing the
disease, while supporting those affected by it. It
means using schools to promote more parental
involvement, more support for OVC and protection for
those who are most vulnerable in our society by actions
over which they have no control and in which they had no
part." (Statement by Nelson Mandela - Urgent Action
for Children on the Brink )
Sustainability
Once teachers,
caregivers and youth volunteers are
mobilized,
what they learn will perpetuate itself. The communities
will never be the same again – and this bodes well for
the vulnerable children. After 3 years, these schools and their
communities will be saturated with
what
they need
to know.
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