Final Report of The Children and Violence Intervention Project: January 1994 – November 1995

Mdhluli, D. & Zwane, W. (1995). Final Report of The Children and Violence Intervention Project: January 1994 – November 1995.

 

Dorothy Khosa is Manager of the Youth Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Wandile Zwane is a former Project Manager in the Youth Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Summary of Project

The Children and Violence Intervention Project (CVIP), an extension of the Save the Children Pilot Project, is a trauma intervention and education programme which serves six (6) schools (4 primary and 2 secondary) in the township of Soweto in South Africa. The goals of the project, which has been operating since January 1994, are as follows:

• to develop an understanding of the nature and affects of violence on children and youth, both within community organisations and families;
• to develop an intervention programme together with care-givers and policy-makers to reduce the negative impact of violence on children;
• to facilitate the enhancement of various coping skills to assist communities to cope with the affects of violence;
• to offer treatment and services for victimised children through direct intervention and referral to appropriate services;
• to develop an educational manual on how to deal with violence and trauma; and
• to investigate and develop support structures for children which can offer psychological counselling, as well as legal, and social advice for victims of violence.

During the two years of the CVIP's operation, approximately 390 children, 1,900 parents, and 145 teachers have been served. In addition to the six schools which have been officially part of the CVIP, 8 workshops have been held for an additional 685 parents, teachers, school administrators, church members, and teachers union representatives in areas in and around Johannesburg, in response to requests from other groups.

This report will describe in detail the successes and obstacles the CVIP has encountered over the last two years. However the following case study will serve as an introductory look at the important service the project is providing in the severely disadvantaged community of Soweto.

Case Study of Sarah and Patricia

Sarah and Patricia, both teenagers, are half-sisters living in Soweto with their grandmother, uncle, and other younger siblings. Neither of the girls has contact with her mother or father. No one in the family is employed and the grandmother's pension provides the sole means of financial support. Both girls have attempted suicide (Sarah by a pill overdose and Patricia by attempted self-hanging) as a result of sexual, and physical abuse they are suffering at the hands of their uncle, Joseph. Upon consultation, the grandmother and an aunt (who lives separately) confirmed that Joseph was sexually abusing the girls and that the matter had been reported to the police, but no action had been taken against Joseph by the police. They indicated that they had tried to get Joseph to move to outside rooms that have been built adjacent to the house, but he refuses to leave. Joseph is married with two children, but he also refuses to live with his wife.

At various times both girls have been run out of the house by Joseph when they resisted his sexual advances. In response to their refusals he became physically abusive and both girls are afraid because they are not protected by other family members. In fact, their elder cousin, who was living with them, was forced to leave the home because of Joseph's sexual and physical abuse.

On one occasion, Sarah and Patricia ran to the police station to escape Joseph's abuse. He followed them there and denied their allegations. The police said they would speak to Joseph and that the girls should return if he abused them again. Joseph later boasted to Sarah and Patricia that the police were his friends and therefore would not take action against him.

Sarah and Patricia were referred to the Children and Violence Intervention Project after their school work deteriorated and they became very withdrawn. They were seen by the Field Worker who later met with their grandmother and aunt and obtained the information given above. After these consultations, the Field Worker wrote a letter to the police, and to Joseph, indicating that Joseph's alleged sexual abuse had come to the attention of the Project, and the school, and that intervention was required.

Initially, no action was taken by the police. Sarah, who was becoming increasingly disturbed over the situation, moved in with a relative living in a nearby squatter camp. Patricia remained at home and reported that after receiving the letter from the Field Worker, Joseph had refused to speak to her.

The Field Worker followed up with the police and a meeting was held at the school with Sarah and Patricia. The girls indicated, at that meeting, that they wished to lay charges against Joseph. The police issued a letter instructing Joseph to come to the police station. At this point, an additional uncle, Lucky, became involved. He indicated that Joseph was not the only person sexually abusing the girls (although he did not reveal the identity of the other perpetrators).

Subsequently, a meeting was held at the police station with Sarah, Patricia, Joseph, Lucky, and the Field Worker in which Joseph was confronted concerning the sexual abuse and was told that other family members were prepared to be witnesses should the matter go to court. Only upon hearing that there were other witnesses against him did he stop denying Sarah and Patricia's charges. After he was informed of the potential legal consequences of his behaviour he agreed to the following settlement:

1. He would cease his sexual and physical abuse of Sarah and Patricia.

2. He would not harass or punish Sarah or Patricia for reporting his abuse.

3. Sarah and Patricia would report any violations of his agreement to Lucky. If the girls were not satisfied with Lucky's action, they would go to the police and lay charges against Joseph.

4. Sarah would return home.

After their meeting with the police, Sarah and Patricia's school work improved and they became much less withdrawn. They report that the sexual abuse has stopped. It appears that if not for the presence of the Children and Violence Intervention Project in Sarah and Patricia's school the sexual and physical abuse would have continued, the girls progress in school would have continued to suffer, either or both of the girls might have attempted suicide again, and there would have been tragic and serious long term consequences of their abuse.

Overview of Violence in Townships

Sarah and Patricia were victims of interlocking types of violence that plague townships in South Africa. Their family was suffering from severe affects of unemployment, family disruption, and interpersonal dysfunction. There also may have been political or criminal violence involved in this family's history.

Tragically, children in Township schools in South Africa are severely affected by all these types of violence. Therefore, in order to fully describe the situation of children in Township schools and the motivation for the Children in Violence Project, this report will begin with a discussion of each of these types of violence as they affect South African townships.

Structural Violence

Apartheid, by definition, created racially-based, unequal political, social, and economic infrastructures. Townships were created by the apartheid government to segregate Black, Indian, and "Coloured" South Africans into contained communities without a self-sustaining infrastructure so that they would be economically dependent on white communities, while at the same time remain socially segregated.

Urbanisation, and the resultant migration from rural areas, caused overcrowding and increasing strain on the poor resources available in the townships. Unemployment rates were, and are, astronomical – in the 50% range. Poverty and mounting tensions from overcrowding resulted in internally violent communities.

Unfortunately, while the new South African Government of Unity is attempting to alleviate these appalling conditions in townships including Soweto, progress has been slow. Today, the vast majority of children in Soweto, and other townships, are still living in overcrowded conditions, with minimal infrastructure and continue to suffer from the tragic affects of high unemployment rates and resultant familial disruption.

Political Violence

South Africa is just emerging from a wave of violence, largely political in nature, that gripped the country from the mid-1980s until 1994. As liberation movements escalated their violent attacks against state agents and properties, in response to increased government repression, the apartheid government responded viciously to curb the politically motivated violence and maintain its hold on South Africa. South African youth became intimately involved in this interlocking cycle of escalatory violence which continued throughout the liberation struggle. As a result of their involvement in violent liberation movements, theorists have raised the concern that youth have been severely damaged emotionally and have come to place little value on human life or peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms.

This history of violent liberation activity has robbed many children of their childhoods and left a legacy of rebellion in schools that continues to interfere with a peaceful, constructive culture of learning and teaching in South African schools, particularly those located in the historic sites of greatest resistance such as Soweto.

In addition to the affects of their agency in past political liberation violence, the youth of South Africa have been severely impacted by inter-party political violence between black political organisations, including the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC). This factional fighting has taken an untold number of lives in South African townships and continues to create a climate of extreme fear and insecurity.

Criminal Violence

South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world, no doubt largely attributable to the results of the structural and political violence described above. In one regard, there are hundreds of thousands of unskilled, uneducated youth who are armed and have tasted power during the height of political unrest when they were major agents in defending their communities. The status, respect, and power they enjoyed as liberation fighters is not easily replicated in the "New" South Africa. These youth can not be easily integrated into schools, as teachers are not trained in how to handle them or relate productively to them. With minimal education and skills these youth have little realistic hope of being accommodated by the new system and therefore they resort to criminal activity.

This is not to imply, however, that it is only youth that are involved in criminal activity. Crime is widespread in South Africa, especially so in townships partially due to astronomical rates of unemployment. It is a very common experience for township children to witness assaults, stabbings, and shootings. Drug related crime is on the rise in townships and the numbers of children being reported as victims of sexual and physical abuse is also rapidly increasing.

Familial Violence

Violence was justified, by both the former apartheid government and liberation movements, as the only powerful means of attaining change. These two forces set the pace and direction for popular thinking in South Africa and as a result, their institutional practices of violence have encouraged the use of violence in families as a preferred method of conflict resolution.

South African men are particularly vulnerable to the belief that as men they must assert their authority over their families through the use of violence (physical, verbal, and sexual) due to a very strong societal belief in traditional gender roles. Alcohol and drug abuse which is rampant in the severely disadvantaged township environments makes familial violence even more pronounced. Children, because they are the most powerless members of society, frequently bear the brunt of this family violence.

Additionally, the family serves as an important agent of socialisation. Therefore, violent behaviour patterns are internalized and perpetuated in subsequent generations. Due to the lack of external resources to combat this culture of violence, interrupting this cycle of violence has been very difficult in South Africa in general and in townships in particular.

Impact of Violence

Almost no family living in black townships in South Africa has escaped the traumatic affects of violence in its many forms, either as direct or indirect victims. Structural violence has created barren communities with few, if any, self-sustaining resources. Political and criminal violence have swept through the townships killing thousands people and destroying houses, personal property, and what minimal infrastructure existed. Familial violence has created physically and emotionally chaotic environments where children are not safe or nurtured. For most township children their homes, which should be safe havens, are often the most dangerous places they go.

Even in families that are not violent, parents are often absent because they have to travel long distances to jobs in urban areas where they work long hours for low wages. Young children are left to take care of themselves in violence torn communities that do not provide any support services.

In an attempt to cope with these devastating circumstances children in townships often exhibit maladaptive behaviours including severe depression, suicide tendencies, alcohol and drug abuse, gang membership, aggressive and violent actions against others, early pregnancy, and stealing and other criminal activities.

The Schools

Schools are typically seen to be safe havens for children, however this has not been the case for children living in South African townships, such as Soweto.

History

The education system for blacks under the apartheid government, Bantu education, was a vital instrument of oppression and formed a critical cornerstone of the apartheid government's strategy. The Bantu education system ensured that the conditions in black South African schools were not conducive to effective learning. Bantu schools had extremely overcrowded classrooms, inadequate or non-existent physical resources and infrastructure, ill-trained teachers, and no specialised services such as remedial education or psychological counselling.

Resistance to Bantu education crystallized when the schools, led by those in Soweto, exploded in 1976 and again in 1980 and then in 1985 when black youth began a full-scale campaign to reject and undermine this school system that they saw as a primary agent of their enslavement. These historic uprisings, and the role they played in the broader li beration struggle in SouthAfrica, is well known and widely documented.

Students, in using the schools as a location of resistance fighting, had to exchange their school uniforms and culture of learning (such as it was) for a militaristic cultural orientation aimed at overthrowing the system. While these actions solidified the momentum of the struggle, they simultaneously jeopardised the spirit and performance of the learning doctrine and subjected school children to brutal atrocities. These once self-preserving liberation activities have left students and teachers with a legacy of violent self-destructive coping strategies which they now use to respond to the difficult challenges of creating a new society. Schools have to be demilitarized, both physically and psychologically to meet the intellectual and psychological needs of students and teachers and to heal the scars caused by the past violence.

Tragically, this move away from a culture of violence in the schools is thwarted by the almost universal acceptance of corporal punishment as the preferred and effective means of student discipline and by severely dysfunctional internal school dynamics resulting from the history described above.

Corporal Punishment

Despite a recent constitutional court ruling outlawing the use of corporal punishment in schools, there is still widespread use of the "rod" in South African schools, including those in Soweto. Teachers argue that because corporal punishment is used in children's homes it is the only form of discipline children understand and will respond to. When they attempt to use other forms of discipline teachers say that they don't "get results" and that only through physical punishment are they able to maintain order amongst the children. The situation is further complicated by the fact that many parents encourage teachers to use corporal punishment when disciplining their children. Therefore, in addition to the violence they experience outside of school in their communities and their families, children are physically abused on a regular basis in their schools by their teachers. Additionally, teachers are often verbally abusive to children, either in misguided attempts to change pupils' behaviour, or out of frustration or stress.

There are teachers who support the ban on corporal punishment, but feel they are ill-equipped to utilize other methods of discipline. Several teachers have approached the CVIP staff to organize workshops in their schools on alternatives to corporal punishment.

Internal School Dynamics

South African schools are undergoing a period of monumental change. The racially segregated education departments established under apartheid have been abolished and one inclusive Education Department is being created. This process of consolidation, while welcomed by many, is resulting in a great deal of insecurity and chaos amongst existing staff. Many fear that they will lose their jobs, organisations and individuals are vying for power in the new system, and there is a generalised level of uncertainty as the new department seeks to establish its policies and directions.

As South Africa embarked on the transition from apartheid to the new Government of Unity in the early 1990s, teachers, especially those in historically marginalised black schools, went on strike demanding improved working conditions and higher wages. These strikes increased already existing internal tensions and power struggles amongst teachers organizations and unions and virtually brought teaching to a halt. While designed to improve the situation in black schools, these strikes, which were widespread during 1990-1994, also contributed to a severe deterioration of a disciplined environment for learning and teaching.

In many schools, violent, criminal youth asserted their power as a gap in leadership was created by the massive process of transformation from apartheid education to a new democratic, inclusive education system. Students, teachers, and administrators were, and are, victimised by these youth. In one incident of this widespread phenomenon, the principal of a school in Soweto was threatened by a young "thug" who pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot him as pupils and staff watched helplessly. This reign of terror continues to plague township schools, in particular.

Furthermore, parents and students have been utilising newly granted democratic school governance powers and organisations (Parent, Teacher, Student Associations [PTSAs]) to oust teachers and school administrators with whom they are dissatisfied. These actions, while warranted in many instances, have also increased the level of instability in many township schools. Despite these incidents of parental involvement, most township schools find it extremely difficult to engage parents in school activities or governance.

The end result of all of the above factors is marginally functional, often violent, schools. Teachers and students are both perpetrators and victims of violence. Both groups frequently use strategies and tactics inherited from their violent liberation struggle as they try to implement much needed change in their schools. School buildings have been vandalised, regular schooling routines have been disrupted, teacher and student absenteeism rates are alarmingly high and, despite the efforts of the new government, most historically black schools are still operating without the resources they need to overcome these obstacles to creating safe, effective, democratic, and peaceful schools.

Available Resources

Historically, townships have not had adequate community-based services to deal with the causes and affects of violence due to the forces of structural violence described above. The communal spirit, that existed and helped to provide the support official services couldn't, has been slowly eroded by the increasing violence that has engulfed the country.

School-based services to deal with the psychological trauma experienced by township children and teachers have been, and continue to be, minimal to non-existent. While many "white" public schools and private schools have social workers and psychologists on staff, township schools are served in this regard on an ad hoc basis by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Guidance teachers have been expected to coordinate the provision of these NGO services, however they, as other teachers, are overburdened by high student/teacher ratios, as well as by the expectation that in addition to their subject duties they should provide guidance and career counselling to students. Even when they are able to provide counselling services, many guidance teachers are unable to meet the psychological needs of severely traumatised students due to a lack of appropriate and adequate training and supervision. There are no services available for teachers to deal with the psychological affects of the trauma they experience in their families, communities, and schools.

In the absence of school-based resources to assist children in dealing with the trauma they experience, and to aid them in learning new coping skills, the following organisations are providing resources for schools:

• Social Work Services

Local Social Workers employed by City Councils are servicing large communities and as a result have extremely large case loads which impairs their ability to provide adequate services. In large part these social work services have been of nominal value to schools.

• School Nurses

There are nurses that visit each township school for two weeks a year. Their primary function is to provide medical check-ups in the primary schools. In the secondary schools their work focuses on sex and AIDS education. Reports of sexual and physical abuse often surface during their visits, however due to their short stay in the school, follow-up services are rare.

• Baragwanath Hospital Assessment Centre

In Soweto, children with learning difficulties can be referred for assessment to the Baragwanath Hospital Assessment Centre. Waiting lists are quite long and as a result it is not unusual for children to wait up to three months for an appointment. Even when an appointment is obtained, the high degree of family dysfunction often prevents parents from bringing children to Baragwanath for assessment or follow-up services. There are a few other assessment centres servicing the Soweto area, however they prefer to see children who have a good command of English which many township children do not. Therefore, the majority of children in need of learning disability services go without help.

• Other Organisations

Several NGOs offer short term services ranging from career guidance to drug abuse education and counselling in township schools. These interventions are usually requested by the schools and take the form of workshops. Few, if any, of these intervention programmes have a component for parents or teachers.

The following are some of the organisations providing services to Soweto schools:

• The Family and Marriage Society of South Africa (FAMSA)
• The National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO)
• South African National Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse (SANCA)
• Planned Parenthood
• Township Aids Programme

The Children and Violence Intervention Project: Need, justification, and description

As can be seen from the information presented above concerning the violence township children are faced with in their communities, their schools, and their homes and the lack of resources available to address the traumatic affects of that violence, there is a critical need for a programme such as the Children and Violence Intervention Project. If these severely traumatised children are to have any hope of living healthy fulfilling lives, and if South Africa is to realise its potential as a peaceful, democratic and healthy country, psychological trauma counselling services and education must be provided to township children. If the affects of the violence they have suffered is not mitigated these children may well perpetuate the cycle of violence they have grown up in, resulting in the destruction of both their own lives and the collective life of their community and country.

The Children and Violence Intervention Project (CVIP)

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) has been involved in studying violence and related issues since its inception in 1989. The Centre has established a Trauma Clinic, which provides psychological trauma counselling services primarily to adult victims of violence. While the Trauma Clinic also has a Child Psychologist, it was difficult to reach township children as The Centre is located in Johannesburg and therefore access for township residents is limited. The Centre therefore sought funding from Comic Relief via Save the Children (UK) to initiate a township-based violence intervention project for children. For the first 18 months of its existence this violence intervention project was called "The Pilot Project" and subsequently was re-named "The Children and Violence Intervention Project" (CVIP). The work of the CVIP developed out of, and expanded upon the Pilot Project.

The aims of the Children and Violence Intervention Project were as follows:

• to develop an understanding of the nature and affects of violence on children and youth, both within community organisations and families;
• to develop an intervention programme together with care-givers and policy-makers to reduce the negative impact of violence on children;
• to facilitate the enhancement of various coping skills to assist communities to cope with the affects of violence;
• to offer treatment and services for victimised children through direct intervention and referral to appropriate services;
• to develop an educational manual on how to deal with violence and trauma; and
• to investigate and develop support structures for children which can offer counselling, legal, and social advice for victims of violence.

Despite all the difficulties mentioned above, schools were selected as the entry point for the CVIP because they provide sustainable access to township children. To date, six Sowetan schools have participated in the CVIP. The schools were selected based on the relative safety of the areas in which they are located, conditions (including structural damage, discipline, and the existence of a culture of learning and teaching) at the school, and the possibility of sustainability of the CVIP.

CVIP Implementation

The CVIP was implemented in each of these six schools through a seven-step process described below:

Step One: Entry into the School

The principle task at this initial stage was to gain credibility for the CVIP amongst various interest groups in the school; teachers, teachers' unions, administrators, and parents. It was also essential at this stage to ensure that the CVIP was not dominated or controlled by any particular interest group, but rather was coordinated by representatives of all the interest groups. The goal of this first stage was to approach each group, introduce them to the CVIP and the need for trauma intervention, and to gain their support for the Project. The end product of this stage was an agreement from the school to participate in the CVIP for one year and to make space available in the school for the CVIP staff to use.

Step Two: Needs Assessment

After gaining the support of the school for the CVIP, a workshop for teachers was conducted to assess their fears, expectations, and knowledge of violence and trauma. This information was gathered both through discussions and the administration of a questionnaire. Information was also gathered on the teachers relationships with the broader community and their expectations of the CVIP. A less formal introduction and needs analysis was conducted with students to gain an understanding of their general interests and concerns.

Step Three: Informational Workshops

Following on the needs assessment, workshops were conducted with teachers and high school students on the following topics:

• violence; its causes, nature, and affects on individuals and the larger community;
• identifying symptoms of trauma in children;
• coping skills for teachers.

Step Four: Establishment of a Coordinating Committee

At this stage teachers were asked to volunteer to form a coordinating committee to oversee the functioning of the CVIP at their school and to receive further training to enable them to continue the Project as a self-sustaining effort at their school after a year of working in coordination with the CVIP staff. In terms of overseeing the CVIP they would be responsible for referring children for services, identifying areas for further training, planning and evaluating future programmes, and receiving intensive training in coping and trauma counselling skills.

Step Five: Provision of Counselling Services

Once the Coordinating Committee was established and referrals were being made, the CVIP staff provided both individual and group trauma counselling services to the children. At this stage referrals to outside agencies or services were made if necessary.

Step Six: Networking with other organizations

If the need for services or intervention beyond the scope of the CVIP staff arose in any of the above stages, contacts were made with appropriate organizations to provide the needed services to the school. SANCA, an organisation working with drug and alcohol abuse, and FAMSA, a family life centre which provided workshops on sex education were two frequently used organisations.

Step Seven: Ongoing CVIP operation

The CVIP was staffed by a project coordinator and a field worker who spent one full day per week in each of the CVIP schools. During those weekly visits counselling was offered for children (and as it turned out, parents and teachers as well – see discussion below). Once a month, meetings were held with the Coordinating Committees to evaluate the progress of the CVIP, to discuss specific interventions needed in referred cases, and to provide additional training to Committee members.

CVIP Beneficiaries

Initially, the CVIP considered children to be the primary beneficiaries of project services. However, it rapidly became clear that because of the chronically unstable, insecure, and violent environment of the townships, teachers and parents were also in need of services if they were to be able to meet the cognitive and emotional needs of the children. Parents and teachers lacked the skills to assist children with their trauma and were very often unassisted victims of severe trauma themselves. CVIP staff realised that if services were not provided to these caretaking adults, the children who received counselling would simply re-enter violent, hostile environments which would re-traumatise them.

Therefore, it became necessary to provide additional trauma counselling, education, and referral services to parents and teachers as well as children. Additional workshops were held for these adults to provide them with the skills to identify the signs of trauma, coping strategies to deal with the affects of trauma, and basic counselling skills with which they could facilitate the childrens' healing processes.

While this expansion of CVIP beneficiaries was essential in order to meet the needs of traumatised children, it also slowed down the project implementation schedule considerably. Whereas initially the CVIP staff envisaged that the school-based Coordinating Committees would be able to take over the project after one year, it became obvious that due to their own unprocessed trauma and lack of skills, most of the teachers would not be able to sustain the CVIP on their own without a longer intervention period by the CVIP staff.

Coordinating Committees

The chaotic environment of township schools described earlier in this report, severely impacted on the functionality of the Coordinating Committees. In five of the six schools served by the CVIP, for instance, the Coordinating Committees did not meet regularly nor did most of the staff that originally volunteered for Committee membership maintain their involvement. The end result was often that one teacher took primary responsibility for overseeing the CVIP and minimal training of Committee members in the skills necessary to assume responsibility for the programme was possible. It appears that much more work with individual teachers is needed before they will be able or willing to take on the role of active Coordinating Committee members. While discouraging in terms of expansion of the CVIP, this degree of need for assistance on the part of teachers is perfectly understandable given the history of township schools described above. (See description of each project school contained in Appendix One for further detail.)

The Children

During the two years of CVIP's operation in these six Sowetan schools, 390 children were referred for trauma counselling services. The presenting symptoms that led teachers to refer these children to CVIP staff included:

• poor concentration
• aggression
• withdrawal
• poor academic performance
• truancy
• anxiety
• startle responses
• chronic lateness
• personality changes
• expression of foreshortened future
• untidiness and unhygienic appearance
• sleeping in class
• promiscuity
• teenage pregnancy
• drug or alcohol abuse
• suicidal tendencies

As the children told their stories during individual or group counselling sessions, and as follow-up interventions were conducted with family members, it became clear that these children had been victims of, witnesses of, and themselves perpetrators of extreme violence.

The Child as Abused Victim

The most common type of abuse reported by children was extreme physical punishment.

• Siza, age 18, reported that she was physically assaulted on a daily basis by her father who was unemployed and would come home drunk and start fights with Siza's mother. Siza would intervene to protect her mother and then become a victim herself. Once, her father stabbed her during one of these altercations.

• Khosi, age 10, lives with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and several uncles. None of the men are employed and all abuse drugs. They refuse to help with any of the housework, and thus Khosi is expected to maintain the house. If she does not do her chores her mother uses a sjambok (a whip-like instrument) to punish her.

• As a small child, John was beaten so severely by his father that he required abdominal surgery and repair of his urinary system which still does not function properly and causes him excruciating pain. He now lives with his aunt, but is concerned about his younger brother who still lives with their father and is subjected to severe physical abuse.

The children also reported that they were neglected, emotionally abused, and sexually abused.

• Themba, age 13, lives in a squatter camp and walks over three kilometres to and from school everyday. Most days he comes to school without lunch or money to purchase food. His mother is unemployed and unmarried. He reported that his friends discourage him from attending school and try to get him to engage in criminal activities with them.

• Mary, age 12, was told by her teacher that she belongs in the rubbish bin.

• Abel, age 13, has been sodomized by his older brother and forced by this brother to have sex with his younger sister. He lives with his mother and grandmother who insist he is fabricating the abuse.

The Child as Witness

Where they were not direct victims of violence, most children seen by CVIP staff were indirect victims through the trauma of witnessing violence. Children described witnessing physical fights between their parents, seeing a parents robbed, hijacked, and killed.

• Enoch, age 10, saw his friend hanged at the rubbish dump.

• Kgomotso, age 16, frequently witnesses fights between her parents.

• Nthabiseng, age 14, reports that her mother, an alcoholic, makes money by selling alcohol to local residents. Nthabiseng often sees these customers being verbally and physically abusive to her mother.

The Child as Party to Violence

It has already been noted that many of the other forms of violence manifest in greater levels of aggression amongst the children themselves. Teachers have been targets of violence by students, the rape of female students by other students is prolific, and school and community-based gang violence (frequently linked to active involvement in the drug trade) is becoming endemic. Suicide, an indication of students turning their anger and frustrations against themselves, is also a growing phenomenon.

• Katherine, age 16, took an overdose of several types of pills because she feels she is a burden to her parents and uncle and if she was dead things would be better at home.

• Michael, age 13, brought a gun to class and shot it at a fellow student with whom he had had an argument the day before.

• Students Representative Council (SRC) members in a high school are being threatened by fellow students (one was chased around the school by a student wielding a knife) who are demanding that the SRC members give them the money that was raised by the SRC at a recent fundraiser.

The Teachers

In general, teachers at all six schools indicated that they do not feel adequately skilled to address the serious trauma their students are facing. If they attempt to address abuse issues with parents they are frequently rebuked by parents challenging their authority to make such interventions. Further, teachers are very angry and disillusioned by the past discrimination black schools suffered and are not very optimistic about the potential of the new government to balance the historical inequities. They are overwhelmed by large class sizes and by students who exhibit so many challenging trauma-related symptoms. They are also finding that students are not responsive to authority and that they are ill-equipped to deal with discipline problems other than through the use of corporal punishment.

Teachers reported a great deal of stress and trauma of their own to CVIP staff. They are subjected to all the forms of violence described in this report and are often the victims of student violence. In response to this stress and disillusionment absenteeism is high, abuse of students is endemic, and general functioning is at a very low level.

• Mrs. Khumalo, a Grade 1 teacher, regularly pinches her students as a disciplinary action when they make noise in class, don't do their school work, or any other actions she finds objectionable.

• Mr. Zwidi, a Standard 9 teacher, is enrolled in a graduate course at a nearby university. He does his own private work in class and selects one of his students to lead the others in classwork.

• Mr. Zulu, a Standard 8 teacher, sneaks out of school during school hours to drink at the local shebeen.

• Mrs. Ngobeni, a Grade 2 teacher, often uses her own car to take students to the doctor. She is never reimbursed by the school.

The Parents

Township parents, suffer from very high rates of unemployment, family disruption, domestic violence, and alcohol and drug abuse. Parents themselves have been victims of enormous violence and frequently exhibit the behaviour patterns that result from unhealed trauma. Their involvement in school governance and activities is minimal, undoubtably due to the stress they suffer under and the lack of resources available to them.

In general, parents responded positively to the CVIP, although when confronted with their own abuse of their children many were defensive and resistant to intervention. In spite of this, overall, parents welcomed the support offered by the CVIP staff and were willing to engage in problem solving efforts regarding their children. Lack of education, unemployment, substance abuse, and the general level of dysfunction in the township made it difficult, however, for parents to engage as full partners in these intervention efforts.

It should be noted as well, that many township children do not live with their parents but rather stay with grandmothers, aunts, and older siblings. This is due to the high rate of family disruption caused by poverty and family violence.

• Mr. Moloi, the father of Nthabi, a Standard 3 pupil, abuses his daughter whenever he gets angry at her.

• Mrs. Motaung, the mother of Jane, a Grade 2 pupil, is the victim of extreme domestic violence from both her husband, and recently, from her son, a Standard 7 pupil. She wants to meet Jane's needs but often has to leave home for several weeks to escape the violence.

• Miss Dlamini, the aunt of Siphokazi, a Grade 1 one pupil who lives with her, confiscates any clothing or money that Siphokazi's father sends for the child for her own use because she doesn't have a job.

The Impact of the CVIP

The parents, teachers, and children served by the CVIP over the past two years are living, and working, in a severely dysfunctional environment. The affects of historical violence, both from the apartheid system and the struggle for liberation, and the continuing violence on every conceivable level has made healthy functioning nearly impossible. Adults and children are suffering from a multitude of violence-related problems and are in desperate need of trauma counselling services. The demand for CVIP intervention in schools far exceeded the staff's capacity. Even the six schools served by the project required intervention beyond the project's limits.

Despite this overwhelming need, the CVIP achieved a great deal in the six schools it served. As was previously noted, 390 children, 1,900 parents, and 145 teachers received direct services from CVIP staff. These victims of trauma would very likely never have received assistance if not for CVIP's existence.

Qualitative data was collected via interviews with the children, teachers, and parents served by the project. This data was supplemented with the information obtained from the initial needs assessment at each school, and by input from the Gauteng Department of Education.

An analysis of that data indicates that the successes achieved by CVIP include:

• a great need for trauma related services was uncovered and support services were established;
• the schools that utilised the CVIP were sensitized to the issues of violence and abuse;
• children who had suffered violence-related trauma were identified and assistance was provided for them;
• children were referred to outside agencies who could provide specialised assistance;
• teachers received trauma counselling and training;
• parents were informed and educated about issues of violence and trauma;
• parents received trauma counselling;
• parents, teachers, and CVIP staff worked together in teams to assist children;
• networking with the police, child protection units, and other NGOs occurred;
• teachers received skills and were empowered to recognize symptoms of trauma;
• teachers were given support in dealing with their students' problems;
• many incidents of continuous violence were interrupted;
• relationships between parents and children were improved;
• families were provided with outside support;
• educational workshops were provided to a broad range of interested parties outside of Soweto.

The success of the CVIP is further indicated by the outstanding requests from 4 schools in Soweto for the CVIP to come to their school.

Implementation Difficulties

The problems that arose in the implementation and expansion of the CVIP all stem from the affects of structural, political, criminal, and familial violence on township communities. These communities are in a state of physical and psychological upheaval, chaos, and dysfunction that will take decades to heal. This extreme need and the ironic inability to fully utilise trauma-related services created a great challenge for the CVIP.

First and foremost, the need for the CVIP's services far exceeds the capacity of the two existing staff. Just in the six schools that have been served to date, teachers are in need of considerably more individual trauma counselling and skills development (as was noted earlier in the report) if they are to take on the operation of the CVIP, there are many more students who are suffering from violence-related trauma than have received services to date, and the violence-torn school environments need long-term healing intervention in order to allow the schools to make full use of the CVIP.

Secondly, many teachers were resistant to the CVIP in two important respects: they were unwilling to take on any additional work without added pay, and; they were often not respectful of the confidentiality of counselling sessions and barged in when counselling was taking place. Particular difficulties arose with teachers in instances where they were accused of abusing students. Acquiring office space in some of the older schools was also very difficult as there were no extra rooms available.

Also, as mentioned earlier, the members of the Coordinating Committees were in need of a great deal of support in order to fulfil their duties as committee members. The committees often did not function effectively due to the personal needs of the members, lack of skills, overburdening from teaching duties, and the resistance noted above to doing additional work without additional pay.

Beyond these difficulties, the demand for services from additional schools, both within and outside of Soweto was overwhelming. CVIP staff did conduct 8 additional educational workshops during the two years of project operation, but were obviously unable to provide in-depth services to any additional schools.

Finally, CVIP staff faced the same dangers of violence in conducting their work that township residents face on a daily basis. Staff were always in danger of being hijacked, being victims of criminal or political violence, or being threatened physically on home visits to violent families. Unfortunately, home visits had to be conducted on a limited basis due to these ever present dangers.

Nevertheless, the CVIP provided a critically needed service to Soweto children, teachers, and parents. To our knowledge there is no other school-based trauma intervention programme available in Soweto. Given the history of this township presented earlier in this report, it is clear how important it is for township children to receive psychological assistance in dealing with the overwhelming violence they experience on a daily basis. It is also crucial that township schools receive assistance in their healing process if South Africa is to have an educated population able to take on the demands of an industrial, democratic country.

Results in Terms of Stated Objectives

In terms of its stated objectives the CVIP was very successful. Below is an "objective by objective" evaluation of the CVIP progress over the two years of its operation.

1. To develop an understanding of the nature and affects of violence on children and youth, both within community organisations and families.

The community organisations that the CVIP served were schools as they provided the most stable access to the community's children. The needs-assessment that was done with every interest group in each school provided the CVIP staff with an initial understanding of the affects of violence in the school community. The educational workshops on the nature of violence, identifying the symptoms of violence-related trauma and developing coping skills, helped the staff develop a more complete picture of the nature and affects of violence in township children. Finally, the individual and group counselling sessions that were conducted over the two years with 40 teachers, 150 parents, and 390 children allowed for the full picture of violence and its affects in the townships that is presented in this report, to be determined.

2. To develop an intervention programme together with care-givers and policy-makers to reduce the negative impact of violence on children.

Direct intervention was provided by the CVIP staff which significantly reduced the negative impact of violence on the children served. In-roads were made to establishing well-functioning school-based Coordinating Committees. As noted above, considerably more work needs to be done with parents and teachers to empower these care-givers to assist traumatised children.

3. To facilitate the enhancement of various coping skills to assist communities to cope with the affects of violence.

The CVIP assisted teachers, parents, and children in developing healthy coping skills to address the affects of violence. Training was provided for teachers and parents in how to identify signs of trauma, the factors underlying symptoms of trauma, and basic strategies to cope with violence-related trauma. In addition to this direct education, the CVIP staff themselves provided a model for community members through their caring, skilled interventions with teachers, parents, and children. For many recipients of CVIP services, their interaction with the CVIP staff may have been the first time they experienced effective trauma-related intervention and may in itself have given them additional coping skills to deal with the affects of violence.

4. To offer treatment and services for victimised children through direct intervention and referral to appropriate services.

390 children, 40 teachers, and 150 parents received direct counselling services from the CVIP staff. An additional 40 children, teachers, and parents were referred to other appropriate services. The agencies and organizations referred to, included the CSVR Trauma Clinic, the Child Welfare Department, the Police Department, and the Social Welfare Department. Additionally, outreach work was done with teacher's colleges, teachers unions, local churches, and education officials from other districts and provinces.

5. To develop an educational manual on how to deal with violence and trauma.

This manual is still in the process of development. The CVIP staff is working with staff from CSVR's materials development unit to produce a manual for parents and teachers that will incorporate the findings of the CVIP over the past two years. Additionally, the material presented in this report will be made available to teachers, administrators, and parents, in a modified form.

6. To investigate and develop support structures for children which can offer counselling, legal, and social advice for victims of violence.

Through the development and usage of networking contacts the CVIP was able to provide counselling, legal, and social advice for teachers, students, and children at the six Sowetan schools served by the project. Links between NGOs and government service providers were developed that will continue to benefit the population served by the CVIP.

Future Project Direction

Perhaps the most important insight gained during the two years of the CVIP's operation is the magnitude of the need for trauma counselling, education, and intervention services in South African townships such as Soweto. As mentioned, the demand for services far exceeded the staff's capacity just in the six schools serviced by the CVIP. The case studies included with this report as Appendix Two give a striking picture of the trauma township children are suffering under. These cases were not selected because they were the "worst", but rather for their representativeness of the children seen by the CVIP staff. Teachers demonstrated a much greater need for support and trauma intervention than was anticipated when the CVIP was originally designed. It also became clear during the CVIP's operation that no other NGO, community-based service provider, or government agency is currently providing trauma counselling to school children in Soweto.

These factors speak of the need for a multi-faceted approach designed to both develop the internal capacity in individual schools to take over the CVIP, and to cultivate a commitment on the part of the Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare to provide the necessary institutional, system-wide support for trauma counselling and training efforts on a level commensurate with the existing need. The steps proposed to achieve these goals include teacher training, materials development, the development of an effective comprehensive service provider network, and extensive lobbying of the Department of Education and Department of Social Welfare. Each of these activities is described in detail below.

Teacher Training and Materials Development

The direct intervention that the CVIP has been providing to the six targeted schools has met, in part at least, a critical need amongst students, teachers, and parents. As mentioned, the vision at the beginning of the CVIP was that these schools would be able to take over the project after one year of CVIP intervention. For the reasons described earlier in this report, that goal proved to be unrealistic. Teachers demonstrated a great need for education and skills-development in dealing with violence-related trauma, without which they will not be able to address the trauma-related psychological needs of their students.

Partially in response to this need, the CSVR has strategised the integration of the CVIP with its schools-based Youth Education Project. This latter project has, over the past four years, been providing both teachers and students with formal educational workshops on the various forms of violence and its social and personal affects. The proposed merger of these two CSVR projects rationalises this area of service delivery within the organisation, whilst simultaneously enhancing the CVIP's interventions and capacity by bringing greater resources to bear in the CVIP schools. The integration of the trauma intervention aspects of CVIP and the formal educational interventions of the schools-based Youth Education Project, are mutually complementary and clearly enhance the effectiveness of both projects.

The staff of the schools-based Youth Education Project have extensive experience in the preparation of curricular materials, training manuals, and parent handbooks on violence and violence-related trauma. A manual for parents and teachers based on the work of the CVIP is currently in process and plans for further materials development are underway.

Given the historic institutionalised deprivation of township schools, it is essential that teachers receive additional training and educational materials if they are to be able to take on the functions of the CVIP. Teachers in township schools, in addition to suffering their own unhealed traumas, have not had access to the support and training that teachers in historically white schools have. This lack of opportunity for skills development has left teachers bitter and de-motivated, as well as ill-equipped to deal with the tremendous emotional needs of their students. If teachers are going to be both willing and able to take on the services provided by the CVIP, they must be given the skills and the motivation to do so. This teacher education and support is key to programme sustainability within schools and therefore, future CVIP activities in individual schools will focus heavily on this area.

Service Provider Network

Despite the critical importance of teacher skills development, it alone will not be sufficient to address the widespread needs of traumatised students. Even with intensive trauma-related training, teachers will not have the expertise or time to provide sustainable in-depth psychological services to children. They will need a well-functioning network of service providers to refer students to, to call in for supervision, and to provide in-school interventions. The beginnings of such a network have been created through the CVIP's coordination with FAMSA, NICRO, and SANCA over the past two years. Other NGOs and community-based service providers must be identified and engaged in efforts to meet the need in a broader-based institutionalised effort.

The CSVR has been extremely successful in developing such cooperative NGO networks in other spheres of its work, including the arenas of policing and prison reform, truth and reconciliation commission work, and trauma counselling. Expertise and contacts from those areas will be utilised in seeking to develop an expanded network for school-based trauma work. In building such a network of service providers from the NGO sector, it is imperative to recognise that this is ultimately a substitute for what ought to be a state-supported enterprise. It is obvious that, considering the slow, at best haphazard, and frequently non-existent development of government services in this arena, the coordinated role of NGOs in this sphere will have to continue to fill the service vacuum for some time. This does not detract from the principle of government responsibility and it is therefore imperative that, from the outset, NGOs build and develop a partnership with government agencies in building such a service provider network.

Lobbying Government Departments

Ultimately, the Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare must provide system-wide support for trauma intervention with children if the magnitude of the need is to be addressed in a sustainable manner. The Departments of Education and Social Welfare, both on a national and provincial level, are undergoing radical change as they integrate previously racially-segregated departments into one agency. They have also inherited a monumental funding disparity between services for whites and blacks. The internal pressures resulting from restructuring as well as the enormous demands to create equity in funding in a myriad of areas, create a great challenge in garnering the support of both Departments for system-wide expansion of the CVIP's work.

In order to bring the CVIP's experience to bear and to develop the Departmental support for trauma intervention services for children, contact with strategic departmental officials will be made, extensive press and other publicity campaigns will be undertaken, and a grassroots lobbying strategy will be undertaken. The goals of these efforts will be to work with the Departments, NGO service providers, community-based organisations, and others to develop a manageable and sustainable practical plan for the delivery of widespread trauma intervention services. This will demand that existing proposals being examined by government departments in conjunction with RDP implementation be assessed and evaluated. The insights and experience of the CVIP will be invaluable in evaluating the efficacy of these proposals, as well as in developing provincial and national policy in developing system-wide approaches to this enormous problem.

Summary

There is no doubt that township children have been, and are being, severely traumatised by an interlocking combination of structural, political, criminal, and familial violence. For the most part, these children and their adult caretakers are not receiving psychological healing services other than those provided by the CVIP. Without such services the individual lives of these children will be severely impaired, if not terminated, and the culture of violence will continue un-interrupted for yet another tragic generation. For this reason it is essential that the Childrens' Violence Intervention Project continue in the schools it is currently serving.

However, the work of the CVIP to date has revealed that the need for trauma intervention services for children far exceeds the capacity of any one service provider or programme. It is therefore equally essential that the CVIP, in conjunction with the CSR, undertake a multi-faceted effort to institutionalise trauma intervention services in a systematic broad-based effort. The experience already gained from the CVIP's work, and the additional insights that will be garnered from the efforts to develop internal capacity in schools to take on the programme, will be critical in developing such provincial and national programmes.

Appendix One: School climate descriptions

High School #1

The school itself has been suffering from a great deal of disruption over the past few years. For instance, there has not been a permanent principal for the past two years as a result of internal staff tensions and power struggles. Additionally, there was a great deal of conflict between the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the rest of the student body which created a unsafe climate amongst students. There was an active drug trade occurring in the school and many High School #1 students carried firearms and other weapons in school. Project staff often found students wandering around the school, due to teacher shortages and absenteeism. There were also reports of teachers using alcohol during school hours.

The CVIP entered High School #1 in response to a desperate plea from the then acting principal for assistance with the aftermath of a suicide. The school had an historically high student suicide rate. Upon entry into the school the CVIP staff found students to be suffering from very serious multiple traumas stemming from family dysfunction and violence which required intensive intervention. Students came in large numbers to receive CVIP services and there was often a long queue waiting to see CVIP staff. Additionally, teachers at High School #1 were under a great deal of stress and frequently approached the CVIP staff to discuss personal problems.

The coordinating committee at this school initially consisted of two guidance teachers, one male and one female. The male teacher never actually participated in the CVIP and the female teacher was frequently absent and when she was present often did not keep scheduled appointments due to other pressing concerns. She was however, very dedicated to the CVIP and supported its presence and expansion. In spite of these difficulties the CVIP staff developed an excellent working relationship with the school facilitated by extremely supportive office support staff.

High School #2

High School #2 considers itself to be a model school in that last year it had the highest matric passage rates in Soweto, there are security measures in place to protect school property, and the school maintained a relatively stable learning environment as compared to other township schools.

However, the school was not without serious problems. This year the female students in Standards 8 and 9 alleged that they were being sexually harassed by male teachers. There were also numerous student complaints of teachers using corporal punishment, verbal abuse, and other inappropriate methods of discipline. Additionally, students reported that teachers required them to perform unwarranted personal services during school hours.

Despite these problems, the majority of teachers and other school staff were very supportive of the CVIP and actively referred students to the CVIP staff. This support often became problematic however, when teachers and other staff would overstep appropriate intervention boundaries and interfere with the CVIP staff's counselling efforts.

Primary School #1

The Coordinating Committee at Primary School #1, which consists of 5 teachers who were both elected by their peers and volunteered for the committee, has been extremely active and consistent in the involvement with the CVIP. The committee elected a chair who serves as a liaison between the CVIP staff and the school's principal. The committee members actively referred students to the CVIP staff, attended trainings, conducted follow-ups with referred children, and developed well-functioning networks with services outside the school. Additionally they were very generous and showed their hospitality by preparing lunch for the CVIP field worker everyday that he was at the school.

The principal of Primary School #1 was highly organised and provided strong leadership for the school. She was able to establish a peaceful working relationship between different teachers' unions at the school and enjoyed the respect of most staff members. Teachers at Primary School #1 are always in class teaching, and absenteeism is extremely low. If a teacher is absent coverage for her class is always arranged. In terms of the CVIP, she took an active interest in the program and requested regular updates about its progress. This principal has a reputation throughout Soweto as one of the outstanding principals in the area.

As a result of this high degree of internal functioning the CVIP was able to have a significant impact at Primary School #1. Parents were highly involved in the school's functioning, in general, and in the CVIP interventions, in particular. The CVIP field worker was able to run uninterrupted individual counselling sessions as well as group sessions which were initially co-facilitated by the CSVR Child Psychologist.

Primary School #2

The CVIP staff experienced such a higher degree of internal dysfunction at Primary School #2 that the programme had to be prematurely terminated. When the CVIP entered the school, for instance, the principal was about to go on extended study leave and an acting principal was being appointed. While this acting principal was supportive of the CVIP, he was not able to ensure active staff support of the programme. The teachers that volunteered to be on the Coordinating Committee did not usually attend scheduled meetings, did not assume any responsibility for the operation of the CVIP in the school, did not attend scheduled trainings, and did not conduct adequate follow-ups on the cases referred to the CVIP staff. It appeared that this situation was due to internal politics and tensions amongst the teachers at Primary School #2.

Nevertheless, there were individual teachers who actively supported the CVIP, however on their own they were not able to provide the level of support needed to properly conduct the programme. Office space for counselling sessions was difficult to obtain, alterations in the normal school schedule were never communicated to the CVIP staff, and general school-wide knowledge of the CVIP's existence was low. Unfortunately, due to these factors, the CVIP staff made the decision this year to withdraw from Primary School #2. No effort was made by the school to remedy these problems and therefore retain the programme.

Primary School #3

Approximately two years ago, a group of teachers and parents ousted the principal of Primary School #3 and for the following 18 months the school was run by a committee of parents and teachers. In June of 1995 a permanent principal was appointed. Divisions amongst the teachers regarding the ousting of the principal impacted on the implementation of the CVIP, as teachers loyal to the ex-principal would not participate in the CVIP. The Coordinating Committee, consisting of 3 teachers, met sporadically due to the fact that two of the members were on the committee that was responsible for running the school. As a result teachers in the school referred cases directly to the CVIP staff rather than going through the Coordinating Committee. However, absenteeism amongst teachers was quite high making it difficult for the CVIP staff to follow-up with teachers on referrals that were made.

Despite these difficulties, several very productive training sessions were held with the Coordinating Committee, teachers, and parents. When the staff was available they were supportive of the CVIP and assisted in its implementation.

Primary School #4

The staff at Primary School #4 is distinguished from other schools by the predominance of older teachers. Perhaps as a result, the school operates smoothly and there is a solid sense of order. The principal, also an older woman, is well-respected and actively involved in the running of the school. In fact, often when a teacher was absent she would take over and teach that teacher's class. The Coordinating Committee at Primary School #4 consisted of only one teacher, however, she was able to effectively oversee the operation of the CVIP and served as an excellent liaison between the school staff and the CVIP staff. She was committed to the CVIP and conducted consistent follow-ups with the children referred to the CVIP. The rest of the staff was also very supportive of the CVIP and if the Coordinator was not available would approach the CVIP staff directly regarding children in need of services. The staff appeared to have an easy time identifying children that were exhibiting trauma-related symptoms which was facilitated by their general level of commitment to the students and their extensive knowledge of their students' home situations. In fact, the teachers often conducted home visits as most of the children lived nearby the school.

Appendix Two: Case Studies

Jabu

Jabu, a 13 year old boy, was referred to the CVIP by his teacher who was concerned with his deteriorating school performance and his tendency to sleep in class.

During individual counselling sessions, Jabu revealed that he was the eldest child and had a 10 year old sister who also attended the school. His parents were both working, his father as a salesman and his mother as a labourer. The four of them lived in a two-roomed house.

Jabu reported that his father drank heavily and would often send Jabu out late at night to purchase alcohol for him. Frequently, Jabu would be woken up to run these errands so that his father could remain at home entertaining his friends. After the friends would leave, Jabu's mother and father frequently had violent arguments, which Jabu would overhear from his bedroom. Jabu also said that whenever the school required any financial contribution from his parents (for school uniforms, activities, or fees, for example) his parents would say they didn't have the money. Jabu came to school dressed in a worn-down uniform and shoes with holes.

The CVIP coordinator met with Jabu's mother who confirmed Jabu's description of the home life. She indicated that the children "never have any peace" at home, and that in fact Jabu had run away several times. She said that even though she did not like her husband's abusive behaviour, she felt powerless to effect any change because she wished to remain married to him. She was not receiving any support from her own family as they had grown tired of listening to her complain about Jabu's father. She further indicated that she had no financial independence; her husband made all financial decisions and controlled the family's money, taking her salary on payday. She was therefore unable to meet any of the financial needs of her children.

A meeting was held with Jabu's father in which he did not deny any of the allegations against him. However, at first he placed all the blame for his behaviour on the alcohol. After much discussion, particularly concerning his relationship with Jabu, he conceded that there was a problem in the way he was relating to his family. He expressed a willingness to provide more adequately for his family's financial needs and to stop sending Jabu out to purchase alcohol for him. An agreement was reached that the CVIP coordinator would check in periodically with Jabu to see how things were progressing.

A week later, Jabu had a new uniform and adequate food for lunch. His teacher reported that he was coming to class with a bright smile and that his academic performance was improving.

Khosi

Khosi, a 13 year old girl was referred to the CVIP when her teacher noticed that she was exhibiting startle responses every time the teacher approached her. She had also started showing a general uneasiness in class.

Khosi told the CVIP field worker that she had been sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend while her mother was away in Lesotho at a funeral. He entered her bed twice and both times tried to convince Khosi to allow him to sleep with her because he was cold and having nightmares. She vigorously resisted his advances both times, but the second time he strangled her and beat her up.

Khosi reported the abuse to her aunt, who had Khosi move in with her. When the mother's boyfriend was confronted he physically attacked both Khosi and her aunt and accused them of lying. He said that since the whole family always sleep together under the same blanket, his actions were not out of the ordinary. Khosi's mother believed her boyfriend and said Khosi was simply trying to manipulate her to punish her for going away to the funeral. Further information revealed that actually, Khosi's mother did not want to take any action against her boyfriend, at least until the end of the month because, she wanted to wait for him to purchase groceries for her.

The CVIP field worker assisted Khosi and her aunt in reporting the abuse the Child Protection Unit. The field worker validated both Khosi, for reporting the abuse, and her aunt, for taking action on Khosi's reports. Additional counselling was provided to Khosi to assist her in dealing with the abuse and to provide her with education and information regarding the dynamics of sexual abuse and the behaviour of perpetrators. The mother's boyfriend was arrested and arraigned on sexual abuse charges. At the time of this writing, the case was still pending.

Khosi remained living with her aunt and her teacher reported that Khosi was much calmer and happier in class. Khosi, and her aunt, indicated that Khosi was able to remain detached from her mother's chaos and to deal successfully with the affects of the sexual abuse. The CVIP staff continued to provide counselling for Khosi.

John

John, age 11, is repeating Standard 1 because of his learning difficulties. He had a hard time comprehending what is being taught and has particular problems with spelling.

In individual counselling sessions John cried extensively and revealed that his parents were separated and that he lived with his aunt because his mother, who lived in a shack, smoked marijuana and drank all day, did not provide for him. He also said that he was severely assaulted by his father on numerous occasions. He additionally reported that his younger brother was living with his father and was subjected to beatings on a regular basis and was sent to school without lunch. John reported that he worried constantly about his brother.

The CVIP field worker met with John's aunt and discussed John and his brother. She indicated that John had never spoken to her regarding his past, but after the opportunity to express his feelings to the CVIP field worker he was more open and communicative at home. However, the aunt was under pressure from the demands of supporting her own family as well as John. With support from the CVIP field worker, John's aunt was able to deal with this stress and make the decision to bring John's younger brother to live with her as well. The field worker helped the aunt to apply for maintenance assistance to support John and his brother.

John was elated when his brother, Sipho, came to live with him. Sipho was also in Standard 1 and therefore he and John were able to help each other with their school work. This assisted John in improving his school work. John's teacher, who had met with the field worker as well and was working with John in class in terms of providing him with positive attention and rewards for class participation, indicated that John had made marked improvement as a result of the CVIP intervention.

The CVIP field worker met with both John and Sipho and facilitated a process of communication between them in which they shared their concern for each other, how much they had missed each other, and their happiness at being reunited.

Nomalanga

Nomalanga, age 9, had become very withdrawn and her school performance was slipping. Her teacher referred her to the CVIP.

Nomalanga reported serious problems in her relationship with her mother. Her parents were divorced and her mother was living with a new boyfriend, with whom she recently had a child. Consultation with Nomalanga's mother, Mary, revealed that the new boyfriend was jealous of Nomalanga because she represented Mary's previous marriage, which had not yet been officially terminated. However, the boyfriend felt the problems were due to witchcraft but was reluctant to seek "traditional" help. Mary felt under a great deal of pressure from the situation and admitted that she often took her stress out on Nomalanga.

The CVIP staff worked with Nomalanga and Mary to strengthen their communication and their positive involvement with each other. Emphasis was placed on Mary reassuring Nomalanga that she was not the cause of the problems between she and her boyfriend. Mary and her boyfriend were referred to FAMSA (family counselling) for further assistance.

Nomalanga became more outgoing for some period of time, however difficulties continued at home and she became withdrawn again. To provide additional support, Nomalanga joined the CVIP group at her school and continued to participate in that group of 9 other students until the end of the school year.

Denise

Denise, age 11, comes to school irregularly and when she does attend, fails to wear her uniform. Counselling revealed that Denise had recently moved to the area from Natal where she witnessed both of her parents killed in political violence. She is now left to care for her younger sister. She lives in a shack with her aunt and her aunt's boyfriend. The yard where the shack is located is crowded with other shacks. The owner of the yard also owns a shebeen (bar) where Denise is required to work after school. Denise reported being sexually abused by the shebeen patrons, but said that the abuse was not reported because her aunt was afraid of being evicted.

Denise's teacher and the CVIP coordinator conducted a home visit with Denise's aunt. When they arrived, the teacher and the CVIP coordinator found the situation just as Denise had described; a very crowded yard with approximately 12 small shacks and a crowd of people, including Denise's aunt, drinking and gambling. Denise's aunt appeared to be drunk and therefore it was difficult for the teacher and the coordinator to have a productive discussion with her concerning Denise. Instead, they called her to the school several days later.

At that meeting, the aunt revealed that the shebeen was not her business however she participated in the business because she had no other means of support nor any other possible living arrangements. The aunt was encouraged to press charges against the men who had sexually abused Denise, but the aunt continued to say she couldn't do so because of her fear of being evicted. The teacher indicated a desire to have Denise come and live with her, but the aunt refused allegedly because of her relatives disapproval, however the real reason appeared to be that Denise provided care for the aunt's child.

Due to the aunt's uncooperativeness and the dire situation the case was referred to the Child Welfare Office. At the time of this writing, the Child Welfare Office had not taken any action due to overwhelming caseloads, and Denise remained living with her aunt. The CVIP coordinator has continued to see Denise for individual counselling, but with limited success due the intransigence of her living situation.

Tshidi

Tshidi, age 16 and still in Standard 7, was referred to the CVIP when her teacher noticed that Tshidi appeared to have been crying and was very upset.

Tshidi told the CVIP coordinator that she was not on speaking terms with anyone in her family and that when she came home from school she just locked herself in her room. She said that her parents were in the process of getting a divorce and the tension in her house was terrible. She also indicated that she felt her mother was taking out her stress on her. Due to her estrangement from her family she had gone for two weeks without lunch because she didn't want to ask anyone in the family for money or food.

Tshidi's mother came to the school for a conference and brought a suicide note she had found in Tshidi's room. She confirmed the report of her impending divorce and also agreed that she had not been relating well to Tshidi as she preferred to interact with her older daughters who provided her more support during this difficult time. A long consultation was held in which Tshidi cried and vented her feelings about the home situation and Tshidi's mother expressed her willingness to improve her relationship with Tshidi, but expressed her difficulty in relating to Tshidi during these teenage years. They agreed that Tshidi would communicate more with her mother and her sisters and that her mother would spend individual time with her.

Tshidi improved greatly as a result of the meeting with her mother and their plan to work on their relationship. She joined the debate team at school and became involved in other school activities as well.

Boitshoko

Boitshoko, age 6, was sent to the CVIP by his teacher because of withdrawn and aggressive behaviour.

During counselling Boitshoko revealed that his father had murdered his mother. Boitshoko was very reluctant however, to talk about this mother's death and focused rather on his interactions with children in his class. The CVIP field worker met with Boitshoko four times and had Boitshoko use artwork to express himself. Due to the severity of the case and Boitshoko's young age the field worker decided to refer him to the C SVR Trauma Clinic for more intensive counselling.

Thabo

Thabo, age 12 and still in Standard 1, was referred to the CVIP by his teacher because of his excessive aggressive behaviour in class and his general irritability. The precipitating incident for referral was that Thabo stabbed a fellow student in the face with a pen.

In counselling with the CVIP coordinator Thabo said that his fellow students were always picking on him because he had big bulging eyes. However, after consultation with the mother it became apparent that the deeper problem was that Thabo had been rejected by his mother because of his appearance and his low intelligence. His mother revealed that Thabo was always blamed for things that went wrong at home and that he preferred to stay with his grandmother. His mother indicated that she was already receiving counselling from the local clinic for depression and her difficulties in relating to Thabo, but that she didn't feel it was helping her.

The CVIP coordinator began individual counselling with Thabo. Additional work was done with the teacher to assist her in dealing with Thabo and to try and improve his relationships with other children. During the individual sessions with Thabo, the coordinator assisted Thabo with school work and facilitated him in discussing his self-image.

As a result of the CVIP intervention, Thabo became less aggressive towards other children and more confident. Unfortunately, as Thabo became less aggressive the other children became more aggressive towards him. However, the childrens' attacks on Thabo gave the teacher an opportunity to work with the other children on their views of Thabo and to actually reinforce the work being done with Thabo.

Noma

Noma, age 9, was referred to the CVIP when she suddenly became very quiet in class and appeared extremely unhappy. Additionally, her school performance was deteriorating.

Counselling revealed that Noma had been living with a woman friend of her mother's in a nearby men's hostel because her mother was a live-in domestic servant in Johannesburg. (This hostel was one of the major flashpoints of violence in the country.) Noma's father had committed suicide several years before. Noma, and her mother, alleged that the friend would sell other children of Noma's age to the men in the hostel as prostitutes. Additionally, Noma told the CVIP coordinator that her mother's friend's husband had beat her severely and stabbed her in the back.

In response to this abuse, Noma's mother had left her job and rented a small room in a house near Noma's school for the two of them to live in. The owner of the house was epileptic and due to a drinking problem often didn't take his epilepsy medicine and as a result would frequently have grand mal seizures which terrified Noma. Noma was often in the house alone with this man as her mother, also an alcoholic, was often not home.

Several early morning meetings were held with the mother, but progress was difficult as the mother usually can to the meetings intoxicated. Nevertheless, the CVIP coordinator tried to discuss Noma's difficulties with the mother. Noma's mother blamed her own family for much of the situation as she said they were unsupportive and rather than provide her with food or financial assistance they gave her alcohol.

As it became obvious that little progress could be made with her home situation, efforts with Noma focused on making her time at school as positive as possible. Noma was provided with food through the school's feeding scheme, Noma's teacher tried to give Noma additional attention, and individual counselling sessions were provided to Noma by the CVIP coordinator. Noma showed some progress and became more interactive with other children.

Efforts to address the home situation are still underway.

Thembi

Thembi, a 12 year old Standard 4 pupil, was referred by her teacher who was concerned with the low quality of Thembi's school work and her compulsive lying.

Counselling sessions revealed that Thembi had been living with her aunt and uncle since the age of 2. Her mother and her seven brothers and sisters lived some distance away in a rural area. While her aunt and uncle provided a relatively middle class existence, her mother and siblings were very poor. Thembi's teacher, who knew the aunt and uncle, reported that their neighbours were alleging that Thembi was physically abused by her aunt.

In interviews with the CVIP coordinator, Thembi's aunt indicated that she was very strict with Thembi and tried to keep Thembi within her sight at all times. Thembi was not allowed to play with friends because her aunt said that Thembi just told her friends a lot of lies. Thembi's aunt admitted that she constantly reminded Thembi of how poor her mother was and often threatened to send her back to a life of poverty and starvation. She told the coordinator that she said this to Thembi because Thembi did not express enough gratitude for the material things that her aunt and uncle provided. She felt that Thembi seemed more appreciative of things that the neighbours provided, hence perhaps the tight reign that Thembi's aunt held on the girl.

In counselling sessions Thembi revealed that she worried about her siblings and felt that she did not deserve to live a better life than they were living. She said she wished she could give her siblings some of the material items she had. She also complained about severe punishment from her aunt.

A considerable amount of work was done with the aunt on parenting skills, understanding of the developmental needs and abilities of a child Thembi's age, and on assisting her in accepting Thembi's presence in her home. It became clear that the aunt resented Thembi living with her and expected Thembi to behave more like an adult than a child.

The counselling with Thembi's aunt resulted in a much improved relationship between Thembi and her aunt. Thembi's school work improved according to her teacher and both the teacher and her aunt reported that Thembi's lying had decreased as well.

Lucky

Lucky, age 10 and still in Standard 1, was reported to the CVIP because of his aggressive, hyperactive behaviour and his serious difficulties with Maths and Languages. Lucky, admitted that his behaviour was problematic, but put the blame on his fellow classmates who he said were nasty to him.

In counselling Lucky revealed that he was the youngest of four children. He lived in a one room shack in someone's yard with his father and siblings. His mother was not living with them apparently because she had gone to look for work. As a result, Lucky's oldest sister, age 13, had taken over the maternal role. However, because of the family's financial situation Lucky said the sister had a hard time making sure the children had food and often had to ask the landlord and other neighbours for food. The neighbours, knowing how needy the children were, took advantage of them and made the children run errands for them and regularly punished the children for alleged misbehaviour. Lucky said that he had become aggressive as a way of protecting himself from the abuse of these adults.

The CVIP coordinator attempted to find Lucky's mother but to no avail. The family's landlord, who was concerned about Lucky's behaviour, agreed to assist in locating Lucky's mother. Also, after Lucky's teacher was made aware of the situation she became more involved in working with Lucky in the classroom.

At the time of this writing, attempts to locate Lucky's mother were still underway.

Vusi

Vusi, an age 10 Standard 2 pupil, was referred to the CVIP because of his irregular school attendance. His teacher reported that even when he was in school, he didn't contribute much. She also said that she had noticed that Vusi was very dependent on a particular friend of his.

Vusi told the CVIP coordinator that he was the sole caretaker of his mentally ill father as his mother had moved in with another man. Her mother's new partner did not want Vusi living with them. Vusi expressed a great deal of anger at being rejected by his mother and left to care for his father. He said that he often went to bed hungry and was so attached to his friend because he was willing to share his lunch with Vusi. He acknowledged that in response to this situation he had become aggressive towards other children and had turned to lying and stealing to get food and other necessities.

At the time of this writing, counselling is continuing with Vusi who has made progress on his school attendance and class participation.

Buhle

Buhle, age 16, was referred to the CVIP by her teacher who alleged that Buhle was smoking marijuana with her friends.

Buhle told that CVIP coordinator that she was smoking marijuana because she had been told it would help her lose weight. Further counselling revealed that Buhle was living with her brother because her parents were going through a divorce and that she received very little attention at home. As a result, she was seeking attention and approval from her peers.

Buhle showed a stronger sense of self and less susceptibility to peer pressure after a number of individual counselling sessions. It appeared that guidance and attention from an adult was what she was seeking.

Nomhle

Nomhle, age 7, Grade 2, was referred to the CVIP when she came to school covered with bruises.

In counselling with the CVIP field worker Nomhle revealed that her mother had beaten her with a wire the day before for hiding money (2 rand) that her father had given her. Nomhle said that her parents were separated and that her father refused to give money to her mother because her mother was an alcoholic. Her mother doesn't have much money as her only work is occasional "piece jobs" (ironing).

The school staff told the CVIP worker that Nomhle often came to school without lunch or money to buy lunch and that her school uniform had been donated by the school. Nomhle depended on her friends to share their lunches with her.

Both parents were called in to meet with the CVIP worker. Nomhle's mother admitted that she took out her anger at her husband's leaving on all her children, including Nomhle. The father said that he refused to support the children because of his belief that their mother would spend all the money on alcohol. He also revealed that he was involved in criminal activities.

The CVIP worker discussed the negative impact of abuse on children and succeeded in getting the mother to agree not to beat the children any more. The father agreed to give lunch money for the children directly to their teachers.

Six months later, Nomhle reported that her mother had not beaten her since the meeting with the CVIP worker and that her mother had become more involved with the school. Nomhle's father kept up his support agreement for 2 weeks, but since then had not provided money for the children's lunches. Nomhle's teacher reported that Nomhle is progressing well in class.

Hlapi

Hlapi, an 10 year old Grade 2 student, was referred to the CVIP because she regularly came to school dirty, smelly, and without food. The teacher also suspected that Hlapi was being physically abused by her mother. Additionally, Hlapi showed a lack of visual and auditory discrimination in class as well as signs of dyslexia. She was often uninterested in class work and prefers rather to clean or dust the classroom. Finally, the teacher reported that Hlapi was aggressive towards other students.

In counselling Hlapi revealed that about 20 people lived in her house none of whom were formally employed. The family sells liquor to make money and the children are kept up until the last customer has been server, often as late as 11 p.m. When the children make a mistake, according to Hlapi, they receive severe beatings.

The CVIP worker asked Hlapi's mother to come in for an interview, however instead the grandmother arrived and said that the mother was not concerned about the children and therefore there was little that the family could do.

Hlapi was entered into a CVIP counselling group with ten other children that focuses on the children's concentration and behaviour problems. Hlapi's progress has been slow as she does not have a base of support at home, however her aggressive behaviour is beginning to decrease.

Glad

Glad, age 9, was referred to the CVIP by her teacher because of her frequent absenteeism, her withdrawn behaviour, and the fact that when she does come to school she doesn't have lunch.

Glad reported to the CVIP field worker that she lived with her grandparents because her mother has gone to live with her boyfriend. At her grandparents house there is frequent fighting over food. She reported that when she is absent she is often at her uncle's house doing chores.

The CVIP worker attempted to get Glad's mother to come in for an interview however, the mother said she couldn't come because of her work, but that she was attending to the problem of Glad's absenteeism.

Further progress was minimal as Glad's family refused to get involved and Glad herself was unwilling to discuss what was going on at home with the CVIP worker. Glad's has been coming to school more frequently, however she remains very withdrawn.

Nomo

Nomo, age 10, was referred to the CVIP because he teacher found her to be very withdrawn and noticed that whenever she was hurt she cried hysterically. Also, the teacher reported that the quality of Nomo's school work was inconsistent.

In counselling Nomo revealed that she had been raped in 1993 by a neighbour. Prior to that she had seen her father brutally murdered. Her mother had viciously blamed her for the rape and Noma had a horrible time in court when she was cross-examined by the accused man's lawyer. To add to her trauma the man was acquitted.

Due to the severity of Nomo's situation she was referred to the CSVR's Child Psychologist for more extensive therapy. Even though Nomo's mother refused to get involved her aunts were very supportive and took Nomo to CSVR in Johannesburg for the counselling sessions.

Sibo

Sibo, age 14 and still in Standard 3, was reported by her teacher to be obstinate, absent-minded, and a compulsive thief. The teacher also said Sibo's parents had complained to her that Sibo frequently comes home very late and steals anything she can get her hands on.

In counselling Sibo told the CVIP field worker that since primary school she has been afraid to go to school for fear of being punished by the teacher for not knowing the correct answers. She said that since the age of 4 she has lived with three different step-mothers all of whom had been abused by her father. Her father has stopped her from participating in extra-curricular activities such as drum majorettes, which she really enjoyed. She says she runs away from home often. Once when she ran away and stayed with friends in a nearby squatter camp her father came and got her and beat her so severely she couldn't go to school for a week. She says the only place she finds peace is in the veld (fields).

Sibo said that her main concern was that there was no communication between her and her parents. Three sessions were conducted with Sibo and her step-mother (the father indicated he could not attend because of work). During these sessions both Sibo and her step-mother shared their frustrations and expectations. Her step-mother said she was frustrated because no matter how often she and her husband beat Sibo her behaviour didn't change. The field worker explored alternative strategies with the step-mother.

Sibo, her teacher, and her step-mother all report that the situation has improved. Sibo's behaviour has improved in the classroom and at home and Sibo says that she feels more cared about and thinks the communication between her and her parents has improved.

Joy and Patricia

Joy, age 9, and Patricia, age 6, are sisters attending the same school. They first came to the attention of the CVIP because their teachers noticed that they never had lunch or lunch money and that they had to depend on other students for food.

When they met with the CVIP field worker they said that they were living in a small shack with their older sister, age 23, and two older brothers, ages 13 and 19. Their mother was a domestic worker in Johannesburg and was only able to visit them on Sundays for a few hours. At that stage the CVIP worker referred the older siblings to a local church for food packages.

Several months later, the local police came to speak at Joy and Patricia's school about sexual abuse. Shortly thereafter, Joy reported to her teacher that she was being sexually abused by three different men all of whom forced themselves on her sexually in return for food and money that they gave her. She said that one of the men was also abusing Patricia. At this point Joy also reported that her mother, on her Sunday visits, had told her to go to these men for money.

The three men were arrested and are awaiting trial. A visit by the CVIP field worker to Joy and Patricia's "home" revealed dire conditions. Their older sister, who has her own child, is unemployed as is their 19 year old brother. The older sister revealed that their mother is very abusive to the children on her Sunday visits and only gives the children 50 rand to survive on for the month.

The CVIP field worker is in the process of seeing whether the younger children can be placed in foster care and arranging for trauma counselling for Joy and Patricia with the CSVR Child Psychologist.

 

© Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation