Other Child and Youth Development Projects
NACCW builds models of care, and implements programmes and projects for children, youth, and their families, demonstrating the value of child and youth care workers in providing holistic services to children and their families.
NACCW implemented youth development programmes, through the UNICEF-supported Isibindi Sinako project in the Eastern Cape. Isibindi Sinako places special emphasis on support and activities related to the transition from childhood to adulthood.
This programme was implemented with trained child and youth care workers (CYCWs) in basic ECD skills. CYCWs supported families with children under the age of 6 to do the following:
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Structured play with children.
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Assess children’s development and adapt toys and play opportunities during follow up sessions. Caregivers were encouraged to engage in these sessions.
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Assist children develop while doing everyday tasks which were modelled by the CYCW.
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Regular workshops were run for caregivers where issues of importance were discussed, and information exchanged. Children were engaged in group ECD activities and play groups. Caregivers were encouraged to play with children, together with CYCWs.
There are two long-standing programmes that NACCW has implemented called the Young Women’s Empowerment Programme (YWEP) and the Young Men’s Empowerment Programme (YMEP).
The YWEP includes a five-day residential workshop with young women to provide them with the knowledge, resources, skills and opportunities to achieve their personal development goals. Specific areas for empowerment include the development of self, health, education, economic situation and planning for the future.
The YMEP focuses on the impact of gender and culture on male youth, aiming to empower them by building leadership skills and their ability to deal with the pressures that come with being young men. It motivates them to make healthy lifestyle choices and seek education and jobs, thereby serving as positive role models to peers and siblings. The YMEP takes the form of a five-day ‘rite of passage’ wilderness camp facilitated by male child and youth care workers.
Disability programme
The Disability programme aims to ensure that the needs of children and youth with disabilities are addressed in NACCW projects. Within Isibindi, a CYCW was trained as a facilitator with disabilities as a special focus. The Disability Facilitator identified beneficiaries and assisted with disability grant applications, referrals for physiotherapy, and support to access of customized devices and specialised therapeutic services.
May’Khethele
OVC&Y Programme
NACCW implemented the May’Khethele (meaning “I choose for myself” in isiZulu) programme for orphaned and vulnerable children and youth (OVC&Y). The programme aims to intensify HIV services to children and youth and their families to prevent occurrences of new infections, increase access to – and enrolment into – HIV care and treatment services, and support retention in those services. Child and youth care workers work closely with health facilities/clinics to provide services to those in need of HIV prevention, care, and support. NACCW has been implementing the programme since 2019 in partnership with the Children in Distress Network (CINDI) in the eThekwini district in KwaZulu-Natal
Safe Parks are areas set aside for the supervised recreational or educational pursuits of children living in poor communities. Safe Parks are important spaces for reinforcing programmes such as Isibindi’s core home-visitation component or Isibindi Ezikoleni’s school-based component and for delivering special programmes and initiatives to children supported by child and youth care workers (CYCWs).
Safe Parks are either formal or informal. A formal park is fenced and contains structured play equipment managed by an existing NACCW project. An informal park is set up in a public space by CYCWs, contains toys kept in the community, and ‘fenced’ using emergency tape, string or other improvisations. Since its inception in early 2000, NACCW established over 100 formal and more than 500 informal Safe Parks across the country, reaching nearly 100,000 children and youth.
Based on the learnings of the implementation of the Isibindi model, NACCW developed the Isibindi Impilo (“Life in IsiZulu”) model. This model provides has an intensive HIV prevention, care and treatment approach. Through the Impilo model, the child and youth care workers (CYCWs) conduct HIV risk assessments with vulnerable children and adapt a layered approach to address HIV prevention, treatment and care which includes home visits, psychosocial care and support, individual or group-based sessions and structured development programmes, in addition to targeted adherence and support for young people already living with HIV. CYCWs bridge the gaps in care with a mutual referral and linkage process through, for example, healthcare providers referring high risk and HIV+ young people to Isibindi Impilo and CYCWs referring young people to healthcare providers for testing.
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NACCW partnered with NACOSA in implementing a PEPFAR-funded programme utilizing the Isibindi Impilo model in the Western Cape. This is for the “Preventing HIV/AIDS in Vulnerable Populations focusing on Orphans and Vulnerable Children in the Western Cape” programme.
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NACCW partnered with the ELMA Foundation and the MACAIDS Fund to implement Isibindi Impilo in KwaZulu-Natal for the “Unfinished Business of Paediatric and Adolescent HIV” programme.
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NACCW also partnered with the UNAIDS and the Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal to implement the community-based HIV programme.
Additional programmes that drew on the Isibindi Impilo model included:
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The PEPFAR DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe) programme which deployed CYCWs to provide health, educational, life skills and psychosocial services to children. NACCW reached over 45,000 children in the programme in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
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NACCW worked with FHI360 to implement the DREAMS school-based HIV and violence prevention programme in Gauteng, and successfully reached more than 50,000 learners. This programme was implemented in just over 100 schools and was a start to the design of the school based Isibindi Ezikoleni model.
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NACCW partnered with FHI360 to continue the work of Isibindi in the Eastern Cape, and the implementation of ReACH activities servicing over 50,000 beneficiaries.
Creating Circles of Care Programme
During COVID-19 in 2021, NACCW implemented the Creating Circles of Care Programme in partnership with Aware.org and Innovation Edge. The programme responded to outcomes related to assessing and responding to substance use, child protection, and non-centre based Early Childhood Development (ECD). The programme reached over 30,000 young people.