Community Involvement

Some of the ways in which I try to reach out to communities where the needs are often overwhelming is by volunteering support in various ways. This involves, amongst others, supervision of therapeutic work, de-briefing of staff, skills training of staff and volunteers as well as acting as a compassionate witness to the work of community workers. Some of the organisations and individuals that I support in this way are:

Strand Muslim Community

In 1999 I volunteered my services to work in a school in a disadvantaged community. I was fortunate to meet Bridget Hamley-Wise, a school psychologist who worked in our area at that time, who shared my concern for the lack of services in the impoverished communities. Bridget introduced me to Sadik Fanie, principle of the Strand Moslem Primary School. He required help with a group of six boys between the ages of eleven and twelve who had been stealing for many years. I consulted with the boys and their families and documented the story of this work. I extended my work to other pupils and families in that community and developed a partnership with Sadik Fanie in which trust developed and concerns could be shared. My collaboration with the pupils, staff, families and school contributed to the healing of racial prejudices, trans-cultural and inter-religious learning as well as bridge-building that has had far reaching effects for me, my community as well as the Muslim community.

Over the years Sadik Fanie and I spoke about the effects of the slave history, racism, religious oppression and the forced removals under the Group Areas Act of the apartheid government on this community and the problems of poverty, substance abuse, violence and crime that form part of the lives of many of the families with whom I consulted. The stories told by Ebrahim Rhoda, who is researching the history of the Strand Muslim community, brought me some understanding of the history of this community. I was honoured to be invited to a special Heritage Day celebration in September 2003 where the historical photo exhibition which the community compiled as part of Ebrahim Rhoda’s research was put on view for the public. These photos tell the stories of pain and hardship, but also of a strong spirit of community, proud tradition and serious faith commitment of this community.

I have researched some of this work as part of an MTh through Unisa in 2002. The story of my involvement with this community has also been the focus of various papers delivered at conferences and in workshops locally and internationally. An American Muslim therapist, Salma Abugideiri, attended my presentation on the work in the Strand Muslim community at the Conference in Evanston, Chicago in 2003 and responded by writing a letter to Mr Fanie.

In September 2005 Sadik Fanie and Ebrahim Rhoda together with Jaco, my husband, and myself organised a Bridge Building Function where people of the Muslim Community and people of our community spent an evening together with traditional Cape Malay food, music, stories from the history and the photo exhibition. This function was sponsored by Johnella Bird who heard me talk about this community at a conference in Chicago in 2003 and who came to visit South Africa and the school in 2005. The proceeds of the function went towards the School Building Fund as this community has undertaken the realisation of a dream of better school facilities.

Drakenstein Hospice

In 2002 Elizabeth Scrimgeour (CEO) and Fran Tong (Social Worker) of Drakenstein Hospice were part of the ITD-group of students who received supervision and training from me. I have continued to participate with them in training and supervision as well as other consultation work for Drakenstein Hospice. This Hospice has a very high commitment to doing palliative care in the wider community. This involves a programme of home based care workers, volunteers, day care as well as palliative care by nursing sisters and social workers. As a result of poverty, unemployment, high incidence of AIDS and growing numbers of deaths the needs are overwhelming. Staff-members are often exposed to trauma and are over-worked and overwhelmed by the appeal for care and limited medical and social support resources. Apart from participation in training work I have been approached by the Board of Drakenstein Hospice to provide care and support for the professional staff at Drakenstein Hospice. This group meets with me monthly for de-briefing and care. I have also spent time with staff members in the communities that they serve in order to develop an understanding of the conditions of their work and to meet the people that they work with. Staff members can also consult with me in times of crises or personal struggles.

Butterfly House Project

In 2005 a group of family therapists from Trondheim, Norway visited the Drakenstein Hospice and Elizabeth Scrimgeour (CEO) shared with them the dream to build a day care centre in Fairyland, an informal settlement in a township in Paarl where care could be given to the more than forty children who are infected or affected by HIV. She told the group that the dream is to buy a specific piece of land and to call the centre Butterfly House.

On world Aids Day the Trondheim family therapy group spoke about their experience in South Africa at a memorial service in a church in Trondheim. The audience responded by holding a collection which was the beginning of a fund for the Butterfly House project. There was an article in the local newspaper in Trondheim about the talk on World AIDS Day and then big donors stepped forward. The money that was donated set the whole Butterfly House project into motion. The Hospice Board was approached and approved the project. The local branch of Round Table indicated that they would adopt the project and became involved and a board of directors, of which I am a member, was formed with various people from the community. Application was put forward to buy land; plans were drawn up, the money was handed over to me in June 2006 during a visit to the Trondheim Family Counselling office at a public meeting where I was able to speak about the work. A builder from Trondheim, Ivar Koteng, has offered to send his people to work on the building project. They will work with local people who will be able to apply for jobs and who will receive skills training through collaboration with the technical colleagues. Ivar visited Drakenstein in April and his words to the Board of Butterfly House were: “I am sending my people here, because ours is a rich country with small problems, they need to work in a country with big problems so that they will see what it is like and become better people.”

Helderberg Hospice

I have assisted in the training of volunteers of the Hospice based in the community where I live since 1989. As a result of my involvement with Helderberg Hospice I have participated in the training of staff and volunteers at Stellenbosch Hospice, Drakenstein Hospice in Paarl, St Lukes Hospice in Cape Town and Tygerberg Hospice in Bellville. I also participated in teaching in the palliative care training programme as well as the training programme for bereavement counsellors. Topics that I have been asked to cover include: Counselling Skills, Communication, Death and bereavement in a family, Children’s response to Death as well as A Narrative approach to bereavement counselling and people living with life-threatening illness. Sue Nieumeyer, counsellor at Helderberg Hospice, completed her MTh-thesis entitled: Women storying HIV/AIDS in community, for the MTh at Unisa in 2002.

Kersboslaagte Primary School

In 2005 a pastoral therapy student, Estelle Raymond, has become involved with the counselling of and caring for six boys who have raped and tried to set alight a young girl on a farm outside of Paarl. They are pupils at Kersboslaagte, a farm school, and Estelle’s work there has developed into a project in which teachers, parents, members of the community, the Education Department, the public prosecutor and others have become involved. I act as supervisor and consultant to Estelle’s work in this community.

Two schools in Kraaifontein

Thérèse Hulme, a pastoral therapist who was a student with me in 2000, has been doing counselling work in Kraaifontein at Fanie Theron Primary School and is now also doing work at Petunia Primary School. Children at these schools live in poor communities with many social problems and staff at the schools often has to provide care and make intervention for pupils. I have been a consultant and support person to Thérèse in working with children who have been subjected to violence and abuse. This kind of work often has an isolating and traumatising effect on people who attempt to offer services. Thérèse Hulme wrote a thesis about her work with a group of teachers in Kraaifontein which was submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MTh –degree in Pastoral Therapy at Unisa, entitled: Transforming a school community: Facilitators living values.

Yvonne Barnard in Villiersdorp

Yvonne Barnard, a child evangelist, working in the Villiersdorp area ministering to the children of farm workers was referred to me with stress related problems. We have been meeting for therapeutic consultations for the more than six years. Over the years our conversations included looking at the effect of witnessing the poverty, violence, abuse, oppression and lack of services on the lives of the children and their families in the community where she works. I have acted as a compassionate witness to Yvonne’s life and work and have been supportive of her developing ways in which to empower the people of the community to assist her in ministering to their own, but also in developing their lives and improving it. I have been strengthened by the innovative ways in which Yvonne has managed to network within the wider community and thereby recruiting different people and organisations to assist her in her care and ministry. As a woman who grew up as the daughter of a farmer and owner of land I am particularly encouraged by the ways in which Yvonne has worked and lived in this community.

Concerned Parents of Missing Children

The work of this group of parents under the leadership of Michelle Olson of Mitchells Plain was brought to my attention by one of my students, Margot Brink. Michelle and Michael Olson’s son went missing in 1997 like so many other children on the Cape Flats and they decided to offer support to other parents who had a similar experience. They also assist the Police in forming networks to search for children who are reported missing. I have done some supervision with Margot when she was involved in supporting the Olsons with this work and also spent some time volunteering my services as counsellor and witness to the trauma of some of the parents. Margot Brink’s has completed a MTh (pastoral therapy) thesis entitled “Lighting his way home”: Pastoral Conversations with a missing child’s mother, through Unisa in 2003.

Community work of students

I encourage students to volunteer their services to community projects or individuals who cannot afford other services. In this way I have been the supervisor and consultant to various students involved in community work. When I visit them to witness their work and to meet the people that they consult with opens up new worlds for me. I am often forced to go into areas that I would otherwise consider unsafe to consult on problems that seem hopeless and almost unimaginable from my personal position as a middle-class person from a group that has been privileged all my life.

Helene Schoeman was involved in the therapeutic support of children, staff and parents at a school in Steenberg, one of the Southern suburbs of Cape Town, a coloured community. She reflects on this work in her thesis for the MTh at Unisa in 2003 under the title: Restorative Witnessing: A contextual and feminist praxis of healing.

Another pastoral therapy student, Lynn Wilkinson, worked at the Call Centre of the Cape Education Department and was responsible for trauma debriefing of children in the Mitchell’s Plain area where gang related violence, rape, assault, hijackings, bomb scares and abuse is part of everyday life. Lynn consulted me regularly for support and debriefing as well as supervision. She has recorded some of her experiences in her thesis entitled: Stories of survival in the wake of violence and abuse on the Cape Flats. This thesis was submitted in part fulfilment of requirements for the MTh in pastoral therapy at Unisa in 2002.

I also visited and supervised the work of Lucia Oosthuisen, Carin Marais and Yvonne du Toit in schools in coloured communities of Hout Bay, Ocean View and Idas Valley in the Western Cape. The themes of their clients’ stories often involve abuse, substance abuse, violence, poverty and neglect. This is very challenging work requiring both commitment and skill from counsellors.

Students at the University of Stellenbosch also used me as consultant to their community work. In the thesis for the M Ed (psych) Meryl Smuts describes her work with children who had been living on the streets. The title of her thesis is: Doing hope with children who have been living on the street. Chrissie de Vries wrote a thesis entitled: Marriages of a family living with HIV/AIDS and the researchers story about conversations with a family consisting of a grandfather and grandmother caring for their AIDS-infected and dying grandson after the deaths of both his parents to AIDS-related illnesses.