A group of dedicated parents from Langa graduated and received the certificates together with goodie bags on Thursday 20 March after they completed an eight-week short course conducted by The Parent Centre organisation.
They were trained on how to deal with their children at home. The Parent Centre is a non-government organisation designed to reduce the incidence of child abuse through the promotion of positive parent and effective child management practices to enhance the well-being and self-esteem of parents and children in different communities.
The centre’s facilitator Shuaib Salie described the course as the way to equip the parents not only with skills to deal with the children but with the family as a whole. They aim is to educate and empower them on how to be good parents and leaders in a family setting.
“We provide services that are fair, impartial and striving to solve issues for the betterment of the child. We want them to understand the child’s behaviour and how he or she feelings,” he said.
Participants meet every Thursday from 09:30 until 12:30.
The organisation works with various government departments according to Salie.
“Normally, we engage with the parents. Some of them come and share their problems with us. We refer them to the social workers if we see that they need professional assistance. We have our own network where we refer our students,” explained Salie, adding that they also conduct follow-ups with those who completed the course.
Among others, Salie stressed that they visit different communities.
Nomvuzo Bam, one of the parents, described the course as helpful as she works with the children in the community. She said the course was more about the development of children.
“We were advised to listen to our children instead of judging them. And also told us to have a way to speak with them instead of raising our voices when we talk to them,” she explained, adding that they were also taught about the challenges entailed by the different stages of a child (infancy, adolescence, toddler stage and so on).
