26 May 2014

A total of 21 orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) from junior secondary schools in the Mabustsane Sub-district recently underwent a lifeskills training retreat at the Jwana Game Park.

The three-day event was a collaboration between the sub-district's social and community development (S& CD) and Humana People to People.

The social welfare officer for Maokane, Ms Thatayotlhe Phiri noted that the intention of the retreat was to teach participants life skills in order to develop their self-esteem. She also noted that they wanted to create a conducive environment for interaction and experience sharing amongst the adolescents.

“We do realise that they come from different backgrounds with different challenges and therefore this is an opportunity for them to share experiences. We also want to identify gaps and challenges in their everyday lives so that we can develop action plans to address such challenges,” she explained.

She noted the programme initially focused on material things such as food portions and clothes and less on psychosocial support, which was an equally important aspect.

For his part, the project coordinator for Humana People to People, Mr Bonani Marabu said they encouraged participants to express themselves through different ways such as drawing their journey of life to establish what kind of challenges they were facing and to establish where they needed help.

He also said they prepared participants to be able to cope with loss and grief, both who had already encountered it and those that would experience the same in the future.

“We also help them identify and cope with problems that they might encounter in the future such as teenage pregnancy, as well as how to deal with them. We prepare them to be ready for expectations and also to accept such situations,” he explained.

Furthermore, he noted that they encouraged the adolescents to adhere to HIV/AIDS treatment and also reduce the stigma attached to the disease. He said they brought in somebody who is HIV positive to motivate participants as well as showing them the importance of adherence to treatment.

This interaction, he said, would also make them identify the different strengths, hopes and dreams that each participant had for a better understanding and to deal with them accordingly.

“I’m optimistic that this initiative will help curb a lot of challenges such as HIV prevalence rate amongst teenagers which is one of the major challenges faced by the sub-district. Hopefully, we will see a decline in such cases in the future as we continue to support such noble gestures,” he said. ENDS