May / June 2010

Contents

• Editorial - Merle Allsopp
• A Child and Youth Care Intervention - Dr. Thom Garfat
• Relating to your Assessor - Eddie Thesen
• Behaviour Management and Behavioural Change - Edna Olive
• Access to one’s origins from a Psychological point of view - Dr Philip D. Jaffé
• Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children - United Nations Framework
• Lessons in Foster Care - Alida Botha
• Advocating for ‘Female-Controlled’ HIV Prevention - Melanie Judge
• Child Rights
• Activities for Kids
• FICE 2010
• FICE 2010 : Draft Program

From One Ayobalicious Experience to Another!

By Merle Allsopp

Well, after so many years of anticipation, preparation and speculation the World Cup has finally come and gone for South Africa! Many people in the development field remain sceptical about the long term tangible benefits to be accrued from the hosting endeavour ñ particularly as regards economic development, and poverty. Why did we build stadiums and not houses remains a question in the minds of many.

Nonetheless, I have yet to meet a South African who did not catch the World Cup fever! What a once-in-a-lifetime experience! A colleague visiting a deep rural child and youth care project which is off the Eskom grid reported that on the final Bafana Bafana match day children clustered around the community tap with a radio and vuvuzelas - and great jollity to share with all passing cars. The Cape Town Fan Walk experience of walking to the stadium in a crowd of 150 000 happy, orange people will be for me a personal iconic memory of the spirit of South Africa that has been revived through hosting the World Cup. Even detractors agree that the intangible benefits of the experience, whilst difficult to measure and quantify, are enormous. Life is much more complex than we can possibly understand, and beyond the delight of a feel-good experience, who knows how the positive spirit evoked in this time may over time benefit those most disadvantaged in our country?

FICE South Africa has billed the hosting of the 2010 FICE International Congress as ‘our’ World Cup! This may sound like a lofty analogy but in the small child and youth care pond, this is the big international event drawing people from across the globe to one venue to focus on social service provision to children in institutions and in community-based programs ñ right across the globe. This is the first time the FICE International Congress will be happening in Africa. FICE International is confident that South Africa will be able to host an event of this stature, meeting international standards for such events. FICE South Africa is confident that we will be able to do this ñ and more! As hosts we expect to bring to this occasion the characteristic spirit of the South African child and youth care field ñ and mixed with the strong and rich influences of people from many other countries ñ this event is destined to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for delegates.

A glance at the draft program for the Congress (p32) will confirm that many of the world’s leading figures in child and youth care work will be presenting papers and workshops at the Congress. An international panel has carefully selected over seventy presentations to be offered by delegates from over twenty countries, and delegates from many more countries are expected. Aside from the richness of the connections to be made, South African child and youth care workers will have the opportunity to chat to child and youth care’s big names ñ over tea, at the Moyo supper, and in-between sessions!

And as a cherry on the top of all of this there will be the Africa Day, planned to follow the Congress, where FICE South Africa, in partnership with our colleagues in the Zambian Association of Child Care Workers, intends to host a forum for a discussion on the adaptation and possible dissemination of child and youth care skills in other African countries.

All in all, as we store in our memories our ayobalicious experiences of the last month South African child and youth care workers have another ayobalicious experience to look forward to ñ AYOBA!