Becoming true parents

Developing parenting skills in those caring for orphaned and vulnerable children

Lobamba Lomdzala (official name for the Mahlanya community) has the highest crime rate and acts of domestic violence amongst the youth as compared to other communities in Swaziland. Stakeholders were called to a meeting in July 2011 at the local Inkhundla (regional offices) to identify the core of the problem. Local residents, the Inkhundla committee, Royal Swaziland Police officers, head teachers of local schools, Neighbourhood Care Point (NCP) caregivers, NGOs, UNICEF, Guidance Officers from the Ministry of Education and our local Member of Parliament met on that day. The outcome of this meeting was an overwhelming consensus that parenting skills within the community need to be strengthened.
The vision of the project is that children in the Lobamba Lomdzala Community are brought up in more loving and stable home environments, where they feel valued and are given skills and guidance to equip them for happy and productive adult lives.
The main actors to reach this goal are 30 motivated parents and guardians from the Lobamba Lomdzala community which are strengthened in their knowledge, skills, confidence and motivation to provide guidance, support, positive discipline and life skills to the children in their care through a series of workshops. The workshops
will be given on topics such as children’s rights and family relationships (discussing children’s needs and their corresponding responsibilities, identifying the family structure and expectations from each role), children’s development (physical, cognitive and emotional development at age appropriate intervals), basic health and reproductive health (immunization, common diseases and reproductive health for teenagers), HIV/Aids and communication (facts about HIV/Aids, positive living and skills for open communication with teenagers around sexuality, and HIV/Aids), just to name a few.

Project site

District Malkerns, village Mahlanya (Map)

Beneficiaries

30 parents or guardians and 30 children under 16 year benefit directly from the project. 30 more parents/guardians benefit from the knowledge transfer by the trained parents/guardians and around 90 more children benefit indirectly by living in a homestead of a participant.

Project costs and assistance by sahee

The entire project costs are CHF 90’000.–, whereas sahee takes over CHF 45’000.–.

45’000.- Swiss Francs (CHF) are contributed by sahee. Close monitoring of the project and regular contacts with the responsible staff for this project. sahees keeps track of the development of all homesteads supported by this project.

Duration of assistance

1st of January 2013 to 31st of December 2015

Local counterpart

Moya Centre

Project site

www.moya.org.sz