iThemba Lethu
Cato Manor near Durban, South Africa
iThemba Lethu is affiliated with Glenridge Church International in Durban. Its HIV prevention programme based in schools is founded on the principle that children have a destiny and they need to be encouraged to make life choices with their future in mind.
The project starts working with 10-12 year olds before most of them are sexually active. Youth workers act as role models, counsellors and teachers in local schools and iThemba contributes to the youth workers’ salaries and the general running costs of the programme.
The aim is to promote behaviour change before children are sexually active, or at least before they develop any sexual habits. The youth workers give Life Skills classes to around 300 children, as well as after-school clubs and camps where the messages are reinforced in a Christian context. The children see the youth workers living out the values and lifestyle they are teaching. They are valued and treated with respect, disciplined in love and counselled.
In the first year of the programme (2002), iThemba Lethu supported a group of children in Grade 5 (ages 10 and 11) from two local primary schools. Now these children are adolescents and iThemba Lethu continues to work with them through high school. The effectiveness of this long-term approach is regularly confirmed and there are many examples of a decrease in risk-taking behaviour. iThemba Lethu is now working in four schools on an ongoing basis.
Leadership training
Natural leaders among the young people are trained at leadership camps to have a positive influence on their peers. And the work doesn’t stop there. Trained parent liaison officers visit the children’s families to pray with them and help them support their children. The effects of HIV and AIDS mean many families are headed up by a grandmother or older sibling. iThemba Lethu runs workshops for men to encourage them to take responsibility for their families and lead by example, and unemployment is also addressed through skills training and job opportunities.
IThemba Lethu has produced a formal written curriculum for its work in schools and this is being used by other organisations, including iThemba partner, Indlela Life Skills.
> www.ithembalethu.org.za
> South Africa country profile
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