Participatory Health and Hygiene Education Expands

A new partnership with World Vision for Family Impact South Africa

Originally designed and delivered in Zimbabwe to over 77,000 school children, the You Matter Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (PHHE) program has now been expanded into South Africa. In partnership with World Vision South Africa, our amazing and dedicated team at Family Impact South Africa have just completed 6 weeks of PHHE training in 18 schools across 3 provinces. Our teams trained 1,500 students in grades 4 - 7 and helped the schools to set up Health Clubs to ensure that learning about health continues after the training.

The PHHE program is a life skills program that teaches children that they have a role to play in their health, their relationships and their environment. Topics covered are You Matter, Your Body, Your Family and Relationships, Your Health and Environment and Your Future. The results of the training have been very encouraging with 70% of the students trained indicating they understood they were special because God loves them in their workbook exercises. The schools have also begun to implement things taught, including ensuring hand washing facilities are available for students.

The photos below are from the training in rural areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal in the Eastern Cape.

Strengthening Marriages Across Africa

One of the things Family Impact is passionate about is strengthening marriages. Marriage Course 101 (developed in partnership with Relationship Central at Alpha) and Enjoy Your Marriage are two programs that focus on this.

In Zimbabwe an Enjoy Your Marriage weekend was held for 23 couples from 26-28 September. The weekend was held outside Bulawayo at Maleme Dam camp site. One of the facilitators shared "The EYM afforded the couples time to think and talk about their marriage in a venue that frees them from the stresses of the home. The couples highlighted that their wish was for the atmosphere at the EYM to continue even when they go back to their homes." Another weekend is planned for 17-19 October.

In Kenya, 37 couples were involved in three MC101 courses that have been run between July and September.

In South Africa, 16 couples attended an MC101 training in Port Elizabeth from 26-27 September and another 7 week course commenced in Pretoria on 20th September. A number of other courses and refresher sessions for our trained trainers are planned for October and November.

The team in Tanzania are planning for up to three Enjoy Your Marriage weekends between October and December.

It is always great to hear testimonies from those who attend these weekends and courses about the value of spending time working on their marriage. A couple from Zimbabwe shared: “Before the teaching on communication, we could hardly resolve any issue without getting into an argument even about petty issues, but after the teaching, we can now give each other a chance to speak and listen. This has brought harmony in my home because we have less times of arguing”.

Please pray for the momentum to continue to build and for many more courses to be run and marriages strengthened as we move into 2015.

Enjoying 'couple time' during an MC101 course in Kenya

Couples at the EYM weekend in Zimbabwe

Giving Young People a Second Chance in Zimbabwe

Family Impact Zimbabwe is working with the Government of Zimbabwe by assisting them to implement a Pre-Trial Diversion Program for young people under 18. The program works by channelling cases for non-serious offences from the formal justice system to extra-judicial programs, provided they meet certain criteria and at the discretion of the prosecution. The program is not intended to make young people less accountable or responsible for their actions but rather to provide young persons with the opportunity to re-think their lives without getting a criminal record.

Family Impact's role is to provide counselling and psychosocial support to the young person and their family so that he/she may not re-offend. Family Impact also runs training sessions for police officers about the program to make them aware of the aims of the program and the process for referring cases that meet the criteria to the program.

A 19 year old who participated in the program shares "I am grateful to the team I was working with, especially the Family Impact counsellor..... I also would like to express my gratitude to the pre-trial diversion program for affording me a second chance and that I don’t have criminal record. I am going to be a great mother to my child and will offer her the best that I can get. I am also going to go back to school and write my Ordinary Levels as I prepare for my future."

Teaching on Leadership and Conflict Resolution in Burundi

Clemence Gasana and Theophile Ntakamurenga from Family Impact Burundi spent 3 weeks travelling around Burundi delivering training on Advanced Leadership and Peaceful Conflict Resolution. In partnership with World Vision, this three day training course was delivered in 6 locations to 244 participants.

Topics discussed included the laws of leadership, leaving a leadership legacy, responding to conflict and preventing conflict.

Feedback from the participants was very positive, with many encouraging comments for the facilitators and numerous participants indicating an intention to change as a result of things they learnt in the training.

"During the seminar, two pastors who had been in a religious conflict for a long time met. It was a good opportunity to welcome one another and forgive one another."

"This is my first time to be trained about leadership and resolving conflicts peacefully. This makes me very happy."

Family Impact Burundi's Ps. Theophile Ntakamurenga teaches on leadership and conflict resolution

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