Irish youth workers make difference in Blanco
An Irish welfare project, Belfast 2 Blanco (B2B), gave a group of Blanco children a festive Valentine's Day. The B2B project, founded in 2013 by Irish youth workers Alan Waite and Thomas Turley, in conjunction with Aperture, also saw to it that 60 young children from the area are kept in school by sponsoring their full school fees for the year.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the children can also look forward to a warm cup of soup prepared by "Antie Roos", a B2B volunteer, at her home where the B2B soup kitchen is located. Each year a group of approximately 20 young people aged between 15 and 25 travel across the globe from Belfast, Northern Ireland under leadership of Waite and Turley to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate in Golden Valley, Blanco.
The B2B team's annual outreaches entail renovating homes, cleaning backyards, making and handing out food, doing fun activities with the children, taking the girls to treat the elderly women in Rosemoor Home for the Aged and taking the boys to learn from the experience of those at Huis Outeniqua Adult Learning Centre.
This year the team wanted to do a little more. In collaboration with a few volunteers from Blanco, the B2B team hosted three special occasions for the youngsters, including a Valentine's Disco Night, a talent show and a fun day for the whole community.
The disco night saw big and small dancing to some cool jams under the disco lights in the Blanco Community Hall, in celebration of the day of love. The following day, the youth showcased their talents at the Blanco Talent Show, which was a massive success. Each contestant impressed with their talent, but it was the "Unexpected" dance crew that walked away with the winning prize of R2 500 cash.
In second and third place respectively were the Migos and Kretzenshoop Primary From left are the parenting facilitators Natasha Abrahams, Sheridan Kennedy, Matty Mesane and Roslynn Wehr-Damons. INSET - A mom and child spend quality time together during the booksharing programme. School dance groups that each won a cash prize.
The highlight of the B2B group's outreach was the fun day held on Saturday 15 February, which had the little ones up very early, hoping to be the first to get to the jumping castle, while some joined the long queue for face-painting and others were eager to get as many temporary tattoos as possible.
At the end of a fun-filled day with glorious weather, approximately 800 funday goers went home happy. According to one of the project founders, Waite indicated that another group of volunteers from Belfast will visit George soon to continue reaching out to the less fortunate and bring about positive change in the community of Blanco.
For information about the B2B 2018 outreach, visit their Facebook page, Belfast2Blanco, or visit their website, www. belfast2blanco.com.
Article by Henrica Veldman
Parenting does not always come naturally to everyone. To help such parents, the Seven Passes Initiative offers a suite of parenting programmes called Parenting Lifelong Health. Wilmi Dippenaar, director of Seven Passes Initiative in Touwsranten, says they are the only institution in the world where all the programmes of this suite, covering all ages from pre-birth (36 weeks pregnancy) till when the child is 18 years old, have been implemented.
Parenting Lifelong Health is a collaborative developed by the World Health Organisation, Unicef, and a number of universities in South Africa and the UK. "The programmes aim to prevent violence by equipping parents with the tools necessary to form close and loving bonds with their children," says Dippenaar. "Extensive research has shown that children who grow up in a non-violent environment with positive emotional engagement and cognitive stimulation are more likely to succeed at school, find stable employment and form healthy adult relationships. Children are also less likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, to abuse alcohol and other substances, to engage in risky sexual behaviour or become involved in crime and violence."
The first programme, Thula Sana, is known in their community as Mamma Baba, and is a home visit programme. "The other three are group-based programmes where parents meet once a week for between eight and 14 weeks for the different programmes. Two programmes focus on building a strong relationship between child and caregiver and help with spending special time, setting clear house rules and how to handle difficult behaviour that does not include corporal punishment. These are known as the Sinovuyo Kids and Teens programmes," says Dippenaar.
The fourth is a book-sharing programme where the caregiver and child share a book and focus on the pictures.
"This helps the child with the improvement of vocabulary and prepares the child for school, while building a stronger relationship between child and caregiver."
Dippenaar is happy with the results. Research done in collaboration with the University of Cape Town's psychology department and the Institute of Security Studies has shown that two major factors are changing in the whole community's parenting style: parents are using less corporal punishment and they are less stressed about parenting.
Touwsranten has many success stories of families who attended the different programmes, with about one in three of the parents from the community having taken part.
Seven Passes has also expanded the programme to the Wilderness Heights community.