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We are in our tenth year of operation and
we have worked hard to reach where we are
today. Our interventions have increased
over the previous year from 1389 to 1949.
Highlights of the Year
We have managed to handle four school projects being two
primary schools in Alexandra, Athlone
Girls in Observatory and Highlands North
Boys High. We provide the counselling
services to those four schools. We are
aware that we have made positive inputs in
the lives of those young people.
We have managed to raise R26,120.00 through training and
youth counselling support in schools and
retrenchment counselling outside
Alexandra. A lot of work was done with
limited manpower and I would like to thank
Christine and Mavis for the generous
support they gave to make all projects a
success.
In May we visited Leeukop prison with 19 boys from Highlands
North and their tutor as part of a Child
Protection/Substance Abuse Awareness
programme. These boys were trained by
Social Services early in the year as peer
counselors. I helped the school select
interested boys who have the potential to
learn and want to do community work.
We have seen schools outreach to be unique
with its own dynamics. Some children at
High School level have been in a situation
where they have tried to commit suicide.
In primary school, some children have
experienced multiple partners, being older
people, something we know as being child
sexual abuse. Some have experienced loss
because of HIV and AIDS, natural causes or
broken homes and some children are
questioning why their parents stay in an
abusive relationship. They have
challenging environments to cope with.
The centre in Alexandra is used by the
community for individual and family
counselling and also for information
seeking from organisations such as Hope
World Wide, Women’s Net and SANCA just to
name a few. We also see students from
UNISA and Wits.
We have created our counselling sessions
to become a home where they can feel the
warmth and the sense of belonging. We
laugh about things and grow together
because as our clients or callers come for
ongoing support, which we call follow-ups,
we mange to reflect differently to them
using other techniques to really find out
where they are in life and how they viewed
their first sessions e.g. When you left
our office what came to mind, what
happened for you?
Counsellors
Our office is running with two volunteers
who are working very hard in schools
outreach programmes and that is mainly
where our statistics have grown. A very
big thank you to Mavis and Christine for
the support you have given. We have not
as yet made a fulltime placement for Mavis
but hopefully this will happen soon.
Networking
We still network with the Alex Service
Providers Network, Greater Partnership
against AIDS, Alex Development Forum and
Tikkun Ma-Afrika. We are still involved
with Selwyn Segal and San Salvador for the
mentally retarded Adults together with
local individual organisations.
Evaluation for the Year
Our numbers have been impacted primarily
through taking resources to people e.g.
the Schools Project.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our donors First
Rand Foundation, Anglo American Chairman’s
Fund and the Lottery for their kind
contributions in assisting us to carry out
our work.
In addition I would like to thank our
counsellors for the valuable work they are
doing in the community. |
