Marseille 2007
| Abstract #442 - Innovative and simple techniques to deliver psychosocial assessment and support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in resource-poor settings. | ||||
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Session: 38.3: Counselling and Therapy (Parallel) on Tuesday @ 14.00-16.00 in CP Chaired by Barbara Hedge, Michael Blank Authors: Presenting Author: Ms Juliana Thornton - Noah (Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity), South Africa |
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| Additional Authors: Ms Juliana Thornton, | ||||
| Aim: To empower volunteers with the skills and techniques to identify and support OVC experiencing psychological or emotional trauma within the existing system of Home Visits. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Noah (Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity) was conceptualised at the end of 2000. Noah works at forming community-based models of orphan care through which motivated individuals are guided to set up their own community Ark; a network of accountable and synergistic support for OVC. An Ark consists of a committee of elected community leaders who oversee the activities of a group of unpaid volunteers who provide a range of services to OVC in the community. One such service is the home visit. In 2006, after 3 years of mobilizing 75 Arks in Gauteng and KZN and one year of consolidation, it was realized that the current system of home visits consisting of the completion of a checklist monitoring childrens behavior patterns - was not providing volunteers with the skills to identify or support children psychosocially. The system did not always allow for direct contact between volunteer and child. This lack of contact often resulted in Volunteers becoming demotivated, and more often, bored with the task of completing the checklist. In response to this feedback Noah, in partnership with another NGO called Wozobona, initiated 4 Pilot projects in 4 Noah communities. The pilot projects were based on a very simple technique: instead of completing the checklist, the volunteer would go to the childs home and ask the child to draw a picture. The child is allowed to draw anything he or she wants. Once the child has completed the picture the volunteer sits with the child and asks him or her to Tell me about your picture, writing the childs words verbatim next to the drawing. This method is well-known in Early Childhood Development as an effective way to build literacy skills and self-confidence in young children. Approximately 50 volunteers were trained in this method before being asked to try the method during the home visits in the next month. A follow up training session was then conducted after a month of activity. | ||||
| Results / Comments: On the whole, both volunteers and children responded positively to the new system. The children enjoyed the drawing and took pride in the result; the method provided a medium through which the volunteer and child could communicate in a meaningful and respectful way, thus improving the relationship and providing a climate of trust which allowed volunteers to clearly identify the major issues in the childs life. In some cases the drawings and stories were even used by social workers and other local child care workers for assessment and support. However, the new method also revealed more gaps in the system. Most notably the need for further training in bereavement counseling for the volunteers, so that they could counsel the children where needed, as well as a need for the volunteers to, in turn, be psychosocially supported and debriefed on a regular basis. | ||||
| Discussion: The initiative has since been expanded to include a partnership with another NGO, Rob Smetherham Bereavement Services for Children (RSBSC) a program whose Play Skills training program has been recognized as best practice by UNICEF and others. The aim is for the RSBSC training to be rolled out in conjunction with the Wozobona training; thus providing volunteers with a package of methods and skills to handle difficult and emotional topics that emerge from home visits and from the childrens drawings. | ||||
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