Swimming through the challenges
Water is known for its healing properties and national NGO, Waves for Change East London branch, is utilising our sparkling coastline to provide mental health support, education, skills training and opportunities for youth living in vulnerable areas in Buffalo City.
There are several branches throughout the country. Our local office is located in Lower Esplanade Street in Quigney and has been operational for close to five years.
Over the past few years the organisation has achieved a great deal and is regarded with appreciation and gratitude from children and educators in under serviced schools and communities stretching from Parkside to Mdantsane.
Children enrol for free in the programmes offered by the organisation provided they do so with consent from a guardian.
Schools with pupils enrolled in Waves for change report improved behaviour and a sense of confidence and selfsufficiency amongst the children.
Janet Mumyanyiwa, a teacher from Greensleeves Children’s Trust says: “Some of the children were very closed off and didn’t want to open up to anyone but after coming here for some time those children have started to warm up to others.
“I had a child in my class who didn’t want anyone close to him because of the trauma he experienced but after he started coming here, he now allows other children to give him high fives or fist bump him and that’s a big difference especially for the kind of children I teach,” says Mumyanyiwa.
She suspects that the school’s relationship with Waves for change will only strengthen as the years progress because the school believes that the environment posed by the organisation has been a huge benefit to the children.
The Constitution guarantees children the right to violencefree homes and safe community environments but this right does not always translate into reality and often children living in financially vulnerable communities are subject to abuse, trauma and instability.
Waves for Change recognises this disparity in the lived realities of South African children and uses beaches around the country as a safe space in which to introduce children to water safety skills and surfing — lessons which in turn act as mediums through which to instil children with interpersonal skills and coping mechanisms.
Waves for Change East London head coach, Pierre Fray, stresses that the sessions with the children are designed to incrementally teach them to face their fears.
“We have one activity, for example, that involves the children being able to identify a challenge they have faced and what skill they relied on to overcome that challenge and this could be like resilience or
courage and so forth,” says Fray.
Waves for Change sessions take place on the beach with trained surfing and water skills coaches and the sessions are divided into physical exercise components and counselling and mentoring segments.
With this dual focus, Fray confirms that Waves for Change is more of a mental health organisation that uses physical
exercise and natural resources like the ocean, to provide children with an environment where playing, learning, trying and failing is safe to do.
Senior coach, Tee-Ann Lawrence has been involved with the organisation since the early years of the establishment of the East London branch initially as a participant but progressively she gained enough experience to be able to stand for a leadership in the organisation.
“This is the kind of NPO that waves for change is because there’s a lot of opportunities to grow within the organisation as well and there are even mentorship opportunities and study opportunities,” says Lawrence.
She has been a recipient of the benefits afforded and says that with the skills she was bestowed with she is able to network and branch out into other employment prospects outside of Waves for Change as well.
Fray emphasises that this is what makes waves for change dissimilar to other organisations as they try as far as possible to provide the children enrolled with the possibility of a bright and self sufficient future despite their current circumstances.
- Waves for Change is currently recruiting youth mentors at the East London branch and are in search of candidates who desire to be a positive influence in the lives of young children.
- To apply or for more information please contact Pierre Fray on 076-374-5292