THIS MONTH — WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING

Merle Allsopp

Right now I am preparing for a few days in Pretoria where I have three tasks.

• First is to meet with officials in the Department of Welfare which is responsible for all child and youth care work in SA. Some really good policy has been built in this country, but it is often very hard to move this into implementation. We have nine provinces in South Africa, and it’s not easy to get the hard-won principles and standards to get through local administrations and budgets.

• Second, we have been faced with overwhelming tasks related to HIV/AIDS. The sheer numbers of affected children and families has demanded entirely new thinking – for example, old solutions of working with orphans through foster care, adoption and admission to care, are not even on the table. We find ourselves working with child-headed households and have been developing programs of peer teaching with support by neighbourhood adults. NACCW has done some groundwork on pilot programs and training for both the young peer counsellors and the adult supervisors – but now the idea needs to be handed over to the state which is ultimately responsible. We have a “package” to offer them, but how to distribute this across thousands of miles, across provincial borders and very often into remote rural areas?

• Thirdly, we have got as far as building a matrix of training in South Africa, ranging from entry-level two-day courses all the way to a four-year degree program – but the educational authorities require that curriculum be constantly re-evaluated on outcomes principles, and already we are being asked to rewrite the material for the degree course! Capacity and funding are both weak areas while at the same time we are anxious to maintain the standards and principles – so there is some fancy footwork ahead.

The NACCW is in the unique position that, in addition to its access and participation in official circles as mentioned above, it is a professional association with membership structures reaching into all provinces. The small staff of the Association is thus well positioned to interface between state and practice. Every day, somewhere in South Africa, NACCW members are meeting in regional meetings, planning committees, courses, etc., and its professional staff is responsible for supporting and developing this direct practice constituency.

In this connection I am planning a teleconference with our Executive Committee (the elected chairpersons of all Regions) for next week, followed by a follow-up meeting in Johannesburg with our National Chairman. Coming up in March is one of our regular six-monthly Leadership Seminar in which we work at more depth with members drawn from all Regions, listening to the local needs and expectations and building programming for the coming period. Every two years we hold a national biennial conference.

Also next week, as part of the procedures developed in partnership with the state around minimum standards and monitoring, I am due to participate in a Developmental Quality Assurance (DQA) assessment at a children’s home in KwaZulu Natal. The DQA builds a report on the functioning of the program, and also assists with appropriate capacity building for the future. This is a thorough one-week process, and we are building a core of people, both state and independent, who will be skilled at this level of program evaluation. I am also working on a paper on what people can expect from a DQA – what does the state expect of the program and what can the staff expect from the state?

The NACCW acts as a fundholder for the Royal Netherlands Embassy and this gives us the opportunity to encourage new thinking and to support pilot projects, and later this month, together with two staff colleagues, I will be participating in a demonstration to a provincial government a rural project which we believe has considerable value and replicability. We can then recommend that the state approve such a model for subsidy purposes, and hopefully that they take over the responsibility for “transplanting” the model into other areas.

This is the month for the NACCW’s countrywide graduation ceremonies. The degree course is certificated by the tertiary colleges which offer it, but the Association presents the certificates for the many other courses it teaches. The two-year Basic Qualification in Child Care (BQCC) remains the most attended child and youth care course in Africa, and we are in the process of developing a higher course (HQCC) which will bridge the gap between entry level coursework and the degree course.

Pleasant interlude a week or so back was to see Nick Smiar with whom we participate in offering the Professional Assault Response Training (PART) to many institutions, including prisons, in SA. He was here to do “Training for Trainers”, but some of us had time to share news and views with him.