Volunteer training to increase awareness of children’s rights

Mon, 27 July 2009

“People are usually confused, but the fact that they know there are people who are able to listen to them gives them a sense of safety.” - Mariana Sampson, volunteer.

REPORT 4: Expanding volunteer training at Helderberg Child Welfare

Impact and outcomes

• Between August and October 2007, 37 new volunteers, together with existing volunteers were recruited and trained.

• Child abuse and neglect

  • Child protection and places of safety
  • Domestic violence
  • Alcohol and drug abuse
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Trauma counselling
  • First Aid
  • Parenting skills
  • Crisis situations
  • Problem solving
  • Communication
  • The Child Care Act

• The Eye on the Child graduation Ceremony took place on 25 October 2007. The volunteers received authorisation letters and were sworn in by the Commissioner of Child Welfare.

• Between 15-19 September 2008, 15 new volunteers were recruited and trained in the above.

• The Eye on a Child graduation ceremony took place on 8 December 2008, where the newly trained volunteers received authorisation letters and were sworn in by the Commissioner of Child Welfare.

Expenditure

The cost of the project was R86,600, which has been fully paid.

Description	Total Budget	Total Expenses to date
Bank charges	-	991
Food parcels	27 600	27 596
Graduation ceremony	12 800	17 803
Postage	600	343
Stationery	600	923
Telephone cards for volunteers	18 000	15 934
Transport for volunteer home visits	7 800	7 800
Volunteer training 60 PAX @ R200 p.p.	12 000	7 540
Workshop materials (Flip charts)	1 200	411
Workshop manuals @ R1 500 each	6 000	6 596
Total	86 600	85 937

Helderberg Child Welfare did not report any overspend on their total budget. However, there was significant overspend on the graduation ceremony (R5,003), and significant underspend on training (R4,460).

The underspend on training can be attributed to not all of the identified caregiver volunteers attending the training, as well as the fact that the cost per trainee was less than originally budgeted for. The balance of the training budget was reallocated to the budget for the graduation ceremony, as this item was originally under budgeted. This was due to a ceremony being held after each training block, which resulted in three ceremonies being held instead of the two planned for.

Bank charges were also not originally budgeted for, but needed to be covered. Funds from underspent areas were moved to cover the bank charges of R991. Not all workshop materials that were originally budgeted for were needed, and the remaining funds were transferred to the overspent areas. Unfortunately, Helderberg Child Welfare did not consult the SASIX team before carrying out these changes.

Challenges

• The social worker involved with the project is responsible for weekly individual meetings with the caregiver volunteers. These are used to keep up to date with any problems the caregivers may be experiencing. However, these meetings have been neglected, as the social worker’s caseload did not allow time for them. While this problem has been resolved by another social worker coming onboard, Helderberg Child Welfare maintains that any issues the caregivers were experiencing were adequately dealt with in the monthly volunteer team meeting.
• Caregiver volunteers sometimes need to take time off to deal with personal problems. This increases the workload of the other volunteers, albeit for a short period of time.

Monitoring and evaluation

• The care giver volunteer progress is monitored at the weekly individual and monthly team meetings. The social worker provides guidance on any problems the care giver may be experiencing with regards to cases they may be dealing with.
• At this point, it is too early to determine the effect of the newly trained care giver volunteers on the level of child abuse and neglect.
• However, volunteers are trained with knowledge and skills regarding child protection and to legally intervene to protect children who are at risk.

Conclusions and Analysis

The aim of the project was to train a total of 60 care giver volunteers in the communities of Macassar, Sir Lowry's Pass and Rigby. The project has largely gone according to plan and a total of 52 volunteers were trained on all topics planned for. The reason for the decreased number is due to the fact that not all volunteers originally identified eventually attended the training.

The project also overspent on graduation events, as a ceremony was held after each training block, which resulted in three ceremonies being held instead of the two planned for. The money under spent on training was used to cover the additional graduation expenses.

The project has created greater awareness of abused and neglected children in these communities, as well as facilitating more structured avenues to ensure the protection of these children.

60 child protection volunteers equipped to prevent abuse in their community- Report 3

Fri, 31 October 2008

Helderberg Child Welfare: Entrenching child rights in at-risk communities

“The project helps the community accept responsibility for the safety and protection of their children. Ultimately, this project helps to prevent child abuse and neglect.”

Training and supporting an organised group of local volunteers about child rights and child protection provides vital services to children at risk in the community. Child Welfare Helderberg is expanding its "Eye on a Child" community project by training and supporting 60 volunteers from the impoverished communities of Maccassar, Sir Lowry's Pass and Rigby. The project mobilises the community to work with social workers and local authorities in a united effort to ensure the proper protection of children.

Impact

A total of 60 community volunteers were given training on child rights and child protection. This included 23 existing volunteers and 37 new volunteers, recruited as part of this project.

These volunteers are the eyes of the community: they see where children are abused and neglected and help safeguard these children by taking them to a place of safety when necessary. The volunteers also build the capacity of families by teaching them life kills in order to prevent them from abusing and neglecting their children.

Community members in the different areas are more aware of the Eye on a Child volunteers and the work that they are doing. This means there is greater awareness on issues of child abuse and neglect in these communities

Activities

Between August and October 2007, 37 new volunteers were recruited and trained, together with existing volunteers, on:

• Child abuse and neglect
• Child protection and places of safety
• Family/domestic violence
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• HIV/Aids
• Trauma counseling
• First aid
• Parenting skills
• Crisis situations
• Problem solving
• Communication
• The Child Care Act

The “Eye on the Child” Certificate Ceremony took place on 25 October 2007. The volunteers received authorisation letters and were sworn in by the Commissioner of Child Welfare.

There are currently 61 Eye on the Child volunteers in the Helderberg area which includes the service areas of Macassar, Macassar Village, Sir Lowry’s Pass and Raithby.

During the month of November 40 of the volunteers received further training on first aid, child safety at home and malnutrition. Ongoing quarterly training with volunteers is planned to keep them motivated and informed, particularly about the Department of Social Development’s new integrated 10 year service plan.

Expenditure

The cost of the project is R 92 662 with R18 450 still to be paid.

Description	Total Budget	Acutal Expenses - 1st Tranche	Acutal Expenses - 2nd Tranche	Acutal Expenses - 3rd Tranche	Balance
Volunteer training 60 PAX @ R200 p.p.	12,000	1,712.44	2,359.32	2,600.00	5,328.24
Workshop materials (Flip charts)	1,200	0.00	236.50	174.90	788.60
Workshop manuals @ R1500	6,000	2,096.00	1,500.00	1,500.00	904.00
Stationery	600	142.35	150.00	60.25	247.40
Postage	600	0.00	150.00	193.00	257.00
Graduation Ceremony	12,800	5,591.95	0.00	6,181.41	1,026.64
Transport for volunteer home visits	7,800	1,950.00	1,950.00	1,950.00	1,950.00
Telephone cards for volunteers	18,000	4,478.78	4,494.22	4,489.50	4,537.50
Food Parcels	27,600	6,896.14	6,900.00	6,900.00	6,903.86
Bank Charges	0.00	169.88	288.38	76.00	-534.26
TOTAL	86,600	23,038	18,028	24,125	21,409

Challenges

Due to other commitments, volunteers do not always attend monthly consultation sessions. Ongoing consultation with the volunteers is important for the project to run effectively and this was discussed with volunteers at a meeting. To overcome the problem it was decided that a group consultation every month would be more appropriate.

Monitoring and evaluation

The monitoring and evaluation of this project includes:

• Group consultation with volunteers on a monthly basis
• Elected executive members of the project meet once a month and minutes are recorded.
• Task teams like Administrative, Discipline and Supporting, Training and Public Relations and Fundraising meet once every second month.
• Monthly reports on the project are drawn up.

Evaluation forms that volunteers complete after the training serve to guide the choice of topics for in-service training.

Conclusions

The aim of the project is to unite families and the community, encouraging people to take responsibility for their own problems. Families are encouraged, supported and assisted by the volunteers.

The project provides a 24 hour service to the community and vulnerable children, getting the cooperation of the community and enabling them to deal effectively with child abuse and neglect. The project also helps the community accept responsibility for the safety and protection of their children and that children need not necessarily be removed from their families (which they value). Ultimately, this project helps to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Helderberg Child Welfare: Entrenching child rights in at-risk communities - Report 2

Wed, 12 September 2007

Helderberg Child Welfare: Entrenching Child Rights and Child Protection in Communities at Risk

This project to train and support an organised group of local volunteers from the impoverished communities of Macassar, Sir Lowry's Pass and Rigby is well underway. The volunteers will heighten awareness of child rights and child protection in their communities, while providing vital services to children at risk 24 hours, 7 days a week.

The project received an instalment of R24 850 from SASIX on 14 February 2007, and a second instalment of R18 450 on 24 April 2007. The full cost of the project (not including the SASIX administration, monitoring and evaluation fee) is R86 600, with R 43 300 still to be received.

Implementation of project activities to date

Through the project 13 new Eye on the Child volunteers have already been trained, and on 31 May 2007, they received certificates at a graduation ceremony held for them. They also received authorisation letters from the Magistrate who attended the ceremony. All 13 volunteers completed and passed their test that was reviewed by the Local Commissioner of Child Welfare.

New volunteers linked up with volunteers already in the project. Working timetables were drawn up for volunteers for more effective handling of cases and better networking. Ongoing quarterly training with volunteers is planned to keep them informed and motivated.

In addition, 10 members from the Sir Lowry's Pass community are currently undergoing training, which will continue until October 2007. Training with new members in Macassar will commence in September 2007 and also be ongoing till October. We hope to train 37 more people in our area of service delivery by the end of October 2007. Currently we have 40 active Eye on the Child volunteers in Helderberg (Sir Lowry's Pass, Macassar, Raithby), including the last 13 that were trained.

Project expenditure to date

Beneficiaries of the project

14 volunteers started with Eye on the Child training. 13 completed and passed their test on 10 May 2007. 13 (12 women and 1 man) were authorized by the Magistrate. A large number of children and families living in these volunteers’ communities will benefit from their participation in Eye on the Child, and can access child protection services for children at risk 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Challenges faced in implementation

A challenge is that we need to recruit more volunteers throughout Macassar, Sir Lowry's Pass and Rigby so that we can fill all our timetable slots without overloading individuals, and in this way avoid work burn-out of volunteers.

We are currently advertising the project by distributing pamphlets about Eye on the Child and the services we provide. Eye on the Child volunteers also staff an information table once a month in a public place to encourage more people to become volunteers on this project.

Monitoring and evaluation

According to the evaluation forms completed by the volunteers on the training sessions and the graduation ceremony, the training and event were very successful. Attendance was also good.

Ongoing monitoring and evaluation is carried out by: • individual monthly consultations with volunteers • group consultation on a monthly basis • feedback from volunteers at monthly meetings with all Eye on the Child members • elected executive members of the project meeting once a month, with minutes being recorded.

Conclusions

Child abuse and neglect is a big problem in South Africa, as seen lately in the media. With the project we hope to reduce incidents and cases of child abuse and neglect in our communities. By training our volunteers to respond to child abuse and neglect, we get them more involved and make them more aware of child abuse. Currently after training we have more volunteers in our areas to help monitor and prevent cases of child abuse.

Because there was an increase in child abuse and missing children in the Western Cape lately, the Eye on the Child project is more needed in the community and should be implemented in further areas. Our volunteers are involved and know their community and are committed to help keeping our children safe.

Helderberg Child Welfare: Entrenching child rights in at-risk communities - Report 1

Tue, 20 March 2007

We at CWSA Helderberg would like to express our appreciation to you for funding our Eye on the Children Project. Your funding made it possible for us to undertake a project that is so needed in our community.

As you might know the aim of the project is to give 24 hour protection to our children in the community and to entrench child rights and child protection in communities at risk. We do this by training, empowering and supporting local volunteers and making them aware of children’s rights and the need for protection of children.

We hereby also confirm that the first tranche payment amount of R24,850 was paid to us on 14 February 2007. We are sorry for our delay in getting the grant agreement completed but would like to thank you for your patience.

Funding received will be used for:

Volunteer training	3 000
Workshop material	300
Workshop manuals	1 500
Stationery	150
Postage	150
Transport	1 950
Telephone cards	4 500
Food parcels	6 900
Graduation ceremony	6 400
TOTAL	24 850

Currently we are busy with our first training sessions. Our first test date for volunteers will be 10 May 2007 and the first graduation ceremony will be 31 May 2007.

The core business of Child Welfare South Africa is the protection of children. As volunteers are trained to identify abusive situations and how to intervene, the child in crisis will benefit. Therefore the people who will most definitely benefit from this project are our vulnerable children.

The Eye on the Child Project is becoming better known in our communities because of volunteers’ involvement in the project, enabling our children to feel safer. Once again thank you very much for your generous funding.

Charmaine Liddle Eye on the Child Project Co-ordinator