promoting schools as nodes of care and support for vulnerable children presentation to the health...
TRANSCRIPT
Promoting Schools as Nodes of Care and Support for Vulnerable Children
Presentation to the Health Promoting Schools ConferenceUniversity of the Western Cape
Cape Town14 September, 2006
Penny Dlamini Soul City,
Who is Soul City: IHDC• Soul City is a dynamic and innovative multi-media health promotion and
social change project. Through drama and entertainment Soul City reaches more than 16 million South Africans. It has also been broadcast in many parts of Africa as well as Latin America, the Caribbean and South East Asia.
• Soul City examines many health and development issues, imparting information and impacting on social norms, attitudes and practice. Its impact is aimed at the level of the individual, the community and the socio political environment.
• Through its multi-media and advocacy strategies aims to create an enabling environment empowering audiences to make healthy choices, both as individuals and as communities.
Why SNOC?
• The impact of poverty and HIV/AIDS on children – particularly school going children – is emerging as massive challenge in SA
• A literature review commissioned by SC in 2004 revealed, inter alia, a number of problems impacting on the process of teaching and learning as a result of this
• 10 million children live in poverty in South Africa i.e. 60 – 70% of all children.
• 1 in 4 households experience food insecurity and 1 in 4 children are badly stunted due to malnutrition.
• Less than 50% of children entitled to social grants are able to access these.
• 800 000 children orphaned by AIDS (2005). 2.1 million by 2010. Rapid growth in child-headed households.
• Psychosocial problems common place.• Child abuse and neglect rife.
What Children Say …. (cont)• “We don’t have uniforms, stationery. No one provides them”.• “No one wants to borrow stationery because other children are
scared of being HIV+”.• “The principals will send letters to their mothers everyday to tell
her that the school fees are not yet paid”.• “They don’t have clothes or food to eat because their mother is
sick. They need paraffin and teabags”.• “He will never be able to feed his younger siblings because there
is no food”.• “They always think about their parents, that makes them feel
sad”.• “They won’t always be at school because they have to take care
of their mother”.
Source: SB 3 Audience Research, 2004
The Government Response
• National Policy Framework for Orphans and Other Children made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, 2005.
• Integrated government and civil society response to orphans and vulnerable children.
• Social grants and other benefits and services for vulnerable children, including:
• No fee schools + school exemptions• School Nutrition Program• School Transport Program• Dept. Agriculture Programs• Dept. Housing Programs• Local Government & Municipalities
Some School Responses• ID & Birth Certificate Campaigns: bringing Home Affairs to schools• After-school and holiday programmes
• Home visits by SGB members & referrals to community-based services.
• Monitoring ARV treatment for HIV+ children
• Training for parents by Department of Labour
• Skills Training for child-headed households with local CBO
• Nutrition training for learners and parents with Department of Health
• BUT, schools are doing this without support.
• SNOC involves the community ,SGBs and government.
• Drawn from 6 Soul City and 10 Children’s Institute case studies of schools in South Africa
The SNOC Response
HOME AFFAIRS
JUSTICE
Local Govt.
CBOs NGOs
ChurchHomeBased Care
Child Care
Forums
Support Groups
EDUCATION
HEALTH
SOCIAL DEV.
SGB
Identify & Refer
Vulnerable Children
Schools As Sites of Service
Provision
SCHOOL-BASED Projects
the 3 components of SNOC
Campaign Goals• To impact positively on the lives of children made
vulnerable by a range of social factors by strengthening SGB’s ability to act as links to care and support services.
• It is about thinking out of the box and picturing broadly what schools and their immediate communities can do to support vulnerable children using schools as the core for action.
• Departments of Education & Social Development• Soul City• NASGB• SADTU• Caring Schools Network (CASNET)• ACESS
Campaign Partners
Campaign Objectives1. To raise awareness of, and strengthen existing
policy, legislative and institutional environment that supports schools as nodes of care.
2. To popularise the concept and practice of schools as nodes of care.
3. To strengthen SGB’s ability to champion schools as nodes of care.
Objective 1: Enabling Environment• To raise awareness of, and strengthen existing policy that
supports schools as nodes of care. – South African Schools Act, 1996 National Education Policy on HIV/AIDS for Learners and Educators, 1999 White Paper 6: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System, 2001 National School Health Policy, 2002 National Integrated Plan for Children and Youth Infected and Affected by
HIV/AIDS, 2001 National Policy Framework for Orphans and other Children made Vulnerable
by HIV and AIDS, (2005 + 2006)
• To engage social cluster departments to view and use schools as sites of government service provision
Objective 2: Populariseo To popularise the concept and practice of schools as nodes of care.
– Soul City edutainment vehicles.– Soul City Health and Development Worker Awards.– Mainstream print and electronic media.– Document and profile Best Practice Case Studies.– Community outreach and awareness raising.
Objective 3: SGB Capacity1. Materials Development
• Supporting Vulnerable Children, An Essential Guide for School Governing Bodies
• Directory of Children’s Benefits and Services• Using schools as sites of government service provision: A D-I-Y
Guide
2. SNOC Training (accredited level 3 course)• 2006 : targeting 10 clusters of 7 schools (70 schools)• 2007 + 2008 : 10 clusters per year targeting new EMDCs; 2 Masters
Trainings per EMDC; each EMDC hosts Government Services Registration Day
3. IBIS Small Grants Programme
Project Activities to Date• Community Dialogue, Thaba’Nchu• Integration into SC’s multi-media vehicles.
• Soul City 7 & 8 + Soul Buddyz 3 & 4• Buddyz on the Move (SABC 1)• Soul Talk
• Materials Development• Train-the-Trainer Courses• Initial training of SGBs in Mpumalanga, Free State and the Western
Cape. Eastern Cape to roll out mid-September • Ongoing lobbying of the social cluster – including relevant policy and
legislative interventions
Some Indicators of Caring Schools• Fee exemption policies are adhered to.• Improvement in learner achievement, drop out rate and pass rates. • Setting up / improving food garden.• Classroom used for after care and holiday programmes.• Local government departments work with the school (Home Affairs; Health;
Social Development; Agriculture; Housing; Labour; Community Safety.• Home visits by Care / SNOC Committee members.• Close working relationships with local Home-Based Care and faith-based
organisations.• Setting up a School Reading Club and Soul Buddyz Club• Schools policies stipulate school’s care and support responsibilities.• HIV Policy and health Advisory Committee in place• Lifeskills includes issues of stigma and discrimination.
Areas of DoE Partnership1. Materials review and distribution + popular materials
development; materials translation.
2. Identification of EMDCs, clusters and ‘nodal schools’
• High levels of poverty & HIV/AIDS• Large numbers of Quintile 1 & 2 schools• Active SGBs.
3. Mobilising school-stakeholder support (EMDC briefings and circulars);
4. Project Reference Team monitors development of replicable ‘SNOC Module’ for SGB training;
5. Scale-up to reach all schools in each province:• Train-the-Trainer: EMDG officials• Train-the-Trainer: NASGB officers• Service Provider Contracts, NASGB + others
6. Support schools to build relationships with social cluster departments to use schools as sites of government service provision.
7. SNOC training course for SGBs included in statutory training for SGBs.
8. Create an enabling environment for schools to operate as nodes of care and support.
• In this new context, education can no longer be ‘business as usual’. Schools in an AIDS infected and
poverty ridden world cannot be the same as schools in an AIDS-free world. Challenged by this pandemic, the paradigm of education (has to) shift. It is necessary to
change educational planning and management principles if the quality and level of education provision
are to be sustained at reasonable levels,and the hard-won gains of Africa’s education services
sustained.Carol Coombe (2002)
