A brighter future for our youth
IN communities consumed by gang violence and poverty, opportunities for schoolchildren are often few and far between. But Bramble Way Primary School in Bonteheuwel is providing hundreds of schoolchildren with a positive environment in which to learn, develop and thrive.
Gunshots and fear are simply part of the children’s daily lives, says principal Charmain Le Kay, head of Bramble Way since 2014, yet her mission of providing a safe and nurturing primary school is paying dividends for the children.
Recognising these issues, Bramble Way partnered with Wellbeing in Schools & Education (WISE), an NGO teaching children essential life skills such as emotional intelligence and mindfulness, and Warriors of Hope, another organisation which aims to inspire schoolchildren to forge their own paths.
Every Friday morning, WISE Facilitator and volunteer teacher Gadija Sait and Warriors of Hope’s Zeenat Parker, visit Bramble Way to engage the children in fun activities like yoga, board games and storytelling. Expressing emotions can be difficult at first for some children said Gadija, but this changes very quickly: “Sometimes it just takes time for the children to open up and trust you. We’ve had some children that really struggled with saying a positive thing about themselves, but that is often because their environment at home doesn’t allow them to properly express themselves.”
Although the WISE and Warriors of Hope programme has focused mainly on older children, the importance of expanding the opportunity to help younger children is starting to be recognised. With older children at Bramble Way often already exposed to the various issues within the community, Zeenat added, “widening the programme to the younger ones gives us an opportunity to teach positive lessons before they get involved in negative situations.”
“We have changed the mindsets of so many children,” said principal Le Kay, “We have now got over 430 pupils at our school which is almost double compared to 2014.”