09 Apr 2019

North West District Council (NWDC) deputy chairperson, Mr Lathang Molonda, says support staff is crucial to children’s development.

He was speaking at a psycho-social support training for boarding schools support staff organised by the North West District Council in Maun recently.

Mr Molonda said government realised the need to empower caregivers since they were critical in child development.

He said support staff ought to be emotionally strengthened to be better placed to deal with challenges affecting children.

Mr Molonda, therefore, encouraged participants to be actively involved throughout the training to improve their services.

The training, he said, would aid the participants on ways of handling children from different experiences.

Department of Social Protection official, Mr Moffat Nkgari, said psycho-social support was key to producing well-rounded children.

He noted that children across Africa faced many challenges, therefore needed to have endurance skills.

He said the psycho-social support training gave caregivers who could be family members, friends, teachers and boarding school staff skills of assisting pupils.

The training, he said, offered to nurture relations between children and their families and communities as well as ensuring children had emotional, mental, social and spiritual support to meet their wholly development.

Mr Nkgari therefore said psycho-social support enabled children to have coping mechanism in traumatic experiences, noting that it helped in prevention of vices at adulthood stages such as suicide since such individuals could openly share their challenges.

NWDC principal home economics officer, Mr Modise Sekgwake, said child development started from pregnancy, therefore parents should take caution from that stage.

Mr Sekgwake also said children should be informed prior to change of environment to reduce effects of such on their development which included withdrawal, bed wetting and tantrums.

He said a child’s values and interest should be kept on check at all times, adding that a child’s development required proper stimulation across the stages to adulthood.

When commenting, caretaker at Xhakao Primary School, Ms Mashe Mashave, said a child’s upbringing was more than providing food and clothes, but rather required parents and caregivers to understand their children’s emotional needs for better child development.

Another Xhakao Primary School caretaker, Ms Dallinah Satau said she valued her job since she understood pupils’ needs better than parents and teachers. ENDS