Restoration And Healing House (RAHH) church in Langa has held a special service to equip parents with improved parenting skills.
The service was on Sunday 15 May at Zimasa Primary School where RAHH operates from. It was attended by different speakers including Occupational Therapist and Psychological Counsellor Andiswa Mazoko and her husband a Clinical Social Worker and Youth Coach Lunga Mazoko.
Family mediation practitioner Rev Vuyani Buwe also attended. The gathering also interrogated drugs and substance abuse among young people with former addicts sharing their stories.
Addressing the service Andiswa said it’s time for parents to monitor their children. She mentioned drugs and substance abuse as one of the major challenges facing society. She encouraged communities to have an open discussion with children about some of the societal challenges.
“Our aim is to empower parents about parenthood. We want them to be proactive instead of reactive. Based on my experience, I’ve noticed that the worse thing that kills our children is drugs and substance abuse,” said Andiswa.
She stated that challenges differ from area to area.
“It’s difficult to figure out the exact ages in terms of when they start because they change daily. But what I can say now is that children start taking drugs at an early age. It is something they grow up with,” she said.
Andiswa urged parents to take their kids for professional help when they find out that they are on drugs.
“Sometimes the family background has an impact. Some families have superstitions and take the children to traditional healers instead of professional doctors,” she explained.
One of the church members and former drug addict Zonke Mlalandle (30) dispelled as a myth suggestions that only children from disadvantaged families experience the problem.
“I grew up in a warm family, everything was there. My mother was a nurse but I went astray. I had my first child when I was 16 years old. And my second born when I was 21, and my third child when I turned 22 years old. My mother disowned me because I did not listen. But with the help of the salvation church I accepted God and changed my life in 2018,” said Mlalandle, adding that in the same year she registered for the Bachelor in Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
“I am a teacher now at Moshesh Primary School, here in Langa. I changed my life and I’m looking after my children. I’m a living testimony,” she explained.
Rev Luvuyo Dwaba, one of the pastors at RAHH, described the occasion as a special event that was necessary for the church and the community as a whole. He stated that restoration began from home. “What we noticed in most families is that there is no relationship between parents and children. What we are trying to do as the church is to amend that relationship between a child and a parent so that there will be deep understanding between the two,” said Dwaba.
He challenged churches to establish programmes to assist and change the communities instead just preaching the word.