NEWS
July 2010
We have given some motivational talks at Tongaat Hulett in Kliprivier. The company had students from Meyerton High who were being “educated” about working life and given talks by various employees about their particular vocations. There was also a tour of the mill.
We have 14 new probationer counsellors at Duncanville. They will not start doing co-piloting and receive the advanced/contextual training in the meanwhile. They are very enthusiastic and raring to go!!
There was a fire in the Housemother’s flat at Bella Maria and her bedroom contents were damaged. This was due to a short circuit. Luckily her dog woke her up in the early hours of the morning and she was able to sort it out. All her belongings in her bedroom were destroyed!
Another two counsellors were placed and are now earning stipends. They went to Hands of Hope – another NGO in the Vaal Triangle, who approached me for trained counsellors.
Elderly Abuse Awareness Day was “celebrated” at two centres for the elderly. LifeLine volunteers and staff, prepared a tea with various prizes and a short talk, for the residents of Eventide Old Age Facility in Duncanville and also DB Old Age in Sharpeville. The elderly really enjoyed the time and some received prizes for being the “oldest granny and granddad” or the “granny or granddad with the most grandchildren” amongst others.
Colleen Rogers, Director, also addressed the members of Probus on LifeLine, Bella Maria and Thuthuzela Care Centre.
Thuthuzela Care Centre
The Thuthuzela Care Centre is situated within the Kopanong Hospital grounds. It is a “One-stop” Medico-legal centre for victims of rape and domestic violence for the Vaal Triangle.
The LifeLine lay counsellors are currently doing 24 hour duties in two shifts. The counsellors assist the victims with containment, Pre and Post HIV test counselling. We hope to have a Social Worker on duty during the day to supply statutory services.
All counsellors as well as the Social Worker and Social Auxiliary Worker receive regular debriefing and supervision on an ongoing basis from LifeLine.
The client numbers started off at 28 in November and reached a staggering 93 in April!!!
Mother to mothers project
Puff and Olivia have completed their monthly trips to Lesotho to supervise and debrief a group of PWA/Peer Educators. These groups work amongst the communities in Lesotho in the HIV/AIDS field. Puff and Olivia have presented the Wellness Journey programme and have done regular debriefing.
Umsobomvu Mentoring Project – updated news
This project started in August 2008. It was a partnership between Umsobomvu and LifeLine which would last a year. After almost 2 years some mentors are still mentoring their Child head Families with no reimbursement whatsoever. We are in fact still recruiting mentors to mentor children in these areas. They are still doing an amazing job and doing it from the heart!
Duncanville
The Centre at Duncanville has been a hive of activity these last few months. Our Counsellor Co-ordinator has 14 new probationers to induct into the LifeLine fold. Their duties include telephone counselling, Face 2 Face counselling, binding of manuals, packing of donated clothing, filing, making tea for the staff!! and many other chores! They do all of these with great spirit and enthusiasm.
Counselling continues at many schools on a weekly basis as well as on request and counselling is done weekly at a corporate in Vanderbijlpark.
Our Social Auxiliary Worker has been very busy in the community doing awareness talks on various issues and trying to start support groups for HIV and Domestic Violence victims. She has a student Social Auxiliary Worker with her and between the two of them do great work in the communities of the Vaal Triangle.
Sharpeville
Counsellors at Khensani have been doing Face 2 Face duties at their Centre, have visited some schools in the area and will begin doing duties at the schools on a weekly basis after the soccer ends and schools return to normal! Some of the counsellors are also Mentors for Umsobomvu and continue with their mentoring as well. Two counsellors are doing weekly duties at the House of Health – a one-stop centre in Sharpeville. Two other volunteers have now taken up employment with Hands of Hope who do good work around HIV/AIDS.
Thirty five community members (all members of the local Baptist Church) are currently receiving training to become counsellors in their church but will be partnering with LifeLine. Puff, our trainer, is presenting the course on a Thursday evening, once a week.
Sebokeng
Counsellors at Mamello Wellness Centre continue to visit some schools and do the regular Face 2 Face counselling. There was great excitement during April as Mamellol celebrated 5 years of service in Sebokeng. The event was held at the Saul Tsotsetsi Stadium where the CEO of LifeLine Southern Africa, the Chairman of LifeLine – Naveen Ramparsad, Centre Director Colleen Rogers, Counselling Co-ordinator and Supervisors and many volunteers and community members were treated to a party and drama presented by the children from the Mehaladitoe Drop-in Centre. There was plenty of good food for lunch as well as a massive birthday cake. The Service Centre Supervisors, Keke and Joyce, had prepared all the food for the day. Mouth-watering stuff!!
Palm Springs
There seems to be quite struggle at Tirisano to get the volunteers to come and do their duties but we hope that they will get together and make things happen. Some days the Centre does not open but we urge people to make use of the facility and so encourage the counsellors to be present. There is a drive underfoot with Thetha FM to advertise and allow the community to call or sms their concerns/problems and the counsellors will be available there to assist. We hope this will become a regular activity as Keke and Joyce are doing regular weekly talks on the radio – Wednesday evening and Sunday morning.
Bella Maria
Our Social Worker has been extremely busy with her workload of cases which are women and children who have since left the shelter and either moved off on their own or back to their partners. She supervises, advises and counsels at least 35 clients who have left Bella Maria at the moment. During the past few months we have assisted 10 women and 5 children at Bella Maria with accommodation, counselling, interdicts, clinic visits, SAPS issues as well as skills development.
Staff News
There will be a staff change at the end of July. Annelie Coertzen, our Social Worker for Bella Maria, will be leaving us and we will be gaining the services of Laché Hand. We wish Annelie well and welcome Laché to the LifeLine family.
We are still looking for a female Social Worker for Thuthuzela Care Centre.
March 2010
Bella Maria manned a cold-drink stall at the Rotary River Festival on 27th March. LifeLien counsellors, friends and staff alternated duties at this event. We were there from 08.30 until 23.15 and a good day was had by all. We thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment as well!
Staff News
We are very pleased to report that our Social Worker, Annelie Coertzen, will be staying on with us on a full day basis. Annelie has made a huge difference to LifeLine with the work she does for Bella Maria. Clients who leave Bella Maria are now being followed up and some clients re-homed in shelters in different areas on a more permanent basis. Having an extra qualified person has helped in ensuring that Bella Maria clients are assisted quickly and efficiently with various issues such as interdicts, divorce proceedings, welfare matters, alternative placements and skills.
February 2010
In February LifeLine held the annual Dedication Service in the training centre in Duncanville where 35 new volunteer lay counsellors were dedicated and received their certificates. Four volunteer counsellors received 5 year awards and another counsellor received a 10 year certificate. Louise Kirchner – a friend of LifeLine for many years received an Honorary Membership Certificate for her years of dedicated pro bono service and assistance to LifeLine. The Rev. Floris Knowds, once again, passed on a very valuable message to all volunteer counsellors during his address at this function.
During February some counsellors went on a walkabout at various shopping centres and all the Malls in the Vaal area. Condoms and LifeLine flyers were handed out. Counsellors also went to clinics and maternity wards of various hospitals and handed out pamphlets about raising children especially for new moms but definitely information for the experienced ones as well!
Sexuality workshops were held at some schools for the Grade 7 learners where boys and girls are separated and given the same presentation by a male and female counsellor.
January 2010
A “Young Warriors” programme was presented over a period of a week at the end of January to two Grade 10 learners (one boy and one girl) from 20 schools in the Sedibeng area. The schools are situated in Heidelberg, Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Bophelong, Sharpeville and Sebokeng, from both the Sedibeng East and West Departments of Education. The learners spent a week with LifeLine’s Training Manager - George van Schalkwyk, Trainer – Puff Pitso and Social Auxiliary Worker Letia Mitane. On the last Friday evening a dinner was held for the learners, members of LifeLine’s Board, the Departments of Education both East and West. The Department of Social Development who funded this activity was invited but was not able to attend. A great week was had by all but the adults were exhausted!!!! This programme is aimed at initiating a Peer Educator presence in schools in the area for teens to access in schools. We are hoping that funding will be made available again so as to continue with this every year and so build up a strong support system in schools.
Staff News
On 1st January 2010 a new Counselling Co-ordinator joined LifeLine. Her name is Helen van Wyk and she will manage and support the counsellors at all four Centres. Helen will look after the counsellor’s wellbeing and see that anyone requesting counselling gets help as soon as possible and from the best person available. Helen will manage all the supervision and debriefing meetings at all centres as well. We welcome her to our family and hope she will be very happy in her new position.
We also at the same time say goodbye to Susan Henning who has been a staff member with LifeLine for 10 years. She will take up a new post at the Oprah Winfrey School and we wish her all the very best. Although she leaves our employ she will remain as a volunteer and we are very grateful for that as Susan is a wonderful counsellor.
Two other volunteers have been given employment opportunities. They are Keke Nkabinde and Joyce Malaoa who will be supervising the Service Centres, Umsobomvu project and Thuthuzela care Centre. They have proved their commitment and value and we welcome them to our family as well as permanent employees. Hope they have a wonderful stay wit us.
December 2009
Sharpeville Mentors do it again! –
The Sharpeville Mentors have once again gone the extra mile! Last year they fed their children with their own money and collected amongst themselves to give out food parcels. This time they prepared a Christmas meal for their children and after making a request to the Rotary Club of Three Rivers, the members dug into their pockets to provide a food parcel for each Child Headed Family. Well done to all concerned!
Christmas for LifeLine Volunteers
On 30th December LifeLine Vaal Triangle treated their volunteers and staff to a boat trip with breakfast on the Spirit of Jen at Stonehaven. A great morning was held by all and some even made use of the Jacuzzi to soak their weary feet!
This was a means of saying thank you to all the volunteers who offer up their time and expertise to help others through the year.
November 2009
Thuthuzela Care centre
The Thuthuzela care Centre is situated within the Kopanong Hospital grounds. It is a “One-stop” Medico-legal centre for victims of rape and domestic violence for the Vaal Triangle. It is a NPA/DOH/SAP project and LifeLine Vaal Triangle is supplying trained lay counsellors to do duties on a 24 hour basis. We have 6 dedicated trained lay counsellors who will care for all victims.
The counsellors are currently doing duties during the day as there are no dedicated Doctors for the night shift as yet. Once this has been sorted out LifeLine counsellors will do 24 hour duties. The counsellors assist the victims with containment, Pre and Post HIV test counselling and then do follow up sessions as and when required. There will be a Social Worker on duty during the day once we have employed her, to supply statutory services. We have a Social Auxiliary Worker who is assisting with training at the moment and she will later work within the communities promoting the Centre as well as LifeLine and Bella Maria.
All counsellors as well as the Social Worker and Social Auxiliary Worker receive regular debriefing and supervision on an ongoing basis from LifeLine.
Umsobomvu Mentoring Project – ongoing – updated news
This project started in August 2008. It was a partnership between Umsobomvu and LifeLine which would last a year. The idea was that LifeLine would recruit unemployed tertiary educated youth who would in turn be paired up with a Child Headed Family to mentor for the year. LifeLine would monitor this and give whatever assistance was required through working with other NGOs.
LifeLine, in turn, gave each Mentor the opportunity to receive skills (a thank you for their volunteerism) by offering each one the opportunity of participating in the well known Personal Growth and Counselling Skills courses. Each Mentor also received a wonderful workshop called “Leaving your Legacy” offered to LifeLine by Refilwe. Although the project has officially come to an end the Mentors continue to offer their services to the children and do not receive anything in return. They are indeed leaving their legacies with these children.They are wonderful! We say thank you and just know that they will be rewarded in some way and always remembered.