The Hangberg Project

Background to the Hangberg and Hout Bay Community

The village of Hout Bay is a snapshot of South Africa. It is used as a test site for numerous government and NGO programmes. For the purposes of clarification, Hout Bay can be broken down into three demographic areas:

Imizamo Yethu (IY):

  • 57 500 people in an area designated for 2500 families (6 in each family).
  • This area consists of serviced formal working class housing, informal backyard housing and illegal un-serviced shacks.
  • The population consists largely of Xhosa economic immigrants from the Eastern Cape, the administratively dysfunctional province to the north of the Western Cape.
  • There is a large contingent of foreign nationals, mainly from Namibia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Malawi. All have moved here for economic reasons, and have integrated well into the local Xhosa community.
  • A significantly large number of female-headed households or where grandparents raise the children.
  • A notably growing number of child headed households.
  • High TB and HIV rate – government clinics supply free healthcare and ARV’s, but not social education.

Hangberg:

  • 28 800 people.
  • The original fishing village community of Hout Bay.
  • Very high level of unemployment and the resultant marine poaching to earn a living – those in employment predominantly work in the aligned fishing industry.
  • Consists of serviced formal middle class housing, middle to working class council flats and a couple of semi-formal bungalows and shacks attached to the formal houses built on the mountain side.
  • The population consists of Coloured (Malato) families who have been in the area for generations – the children do not move out of the area; they raise the new generation in the same area, which contributes to the cycles of poverty and dysfunction.
  • A very high number of female-headed households.
  • A growing number of child headed households.
  • An alarmingly high number of households where grandparents raise their grandchildren as the parents are dead or in the case of the fathers, in jail.
  • High incidence of elder abuse for their social pension.
  • Critical substance abuse rate – good referral and attendance of newly established government funded rehab centre within the community.
  • No funding for social intervention programmes – the government can only deliver the basics.
  • Extremely high drop-out rate from primary school, Grade 7 onwards.

The Valley:

  • 17 200 people
  • The middle to upper middle class, racially mixed area in the middle of the other two areas.
  • Mainly self-employed small business owners. Some CEO’s of SA’s JSE companies.
  • Very high level of community involvement and volunteerism.

Why we base our project in the Hangberg area?

We have three broadly defined demographic communities and only 2 High Schools. One is the International School of Hout Bay that educates the middle to upper middle class learners of the area.

The other is Hangberg High School that schools the learners from Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg.

By working at the Hangberg High School we do not exclude any learner from any of the areas as they are schooled there, it is known to them.

We alsoutilise the existing community structures to broaden our reach beyond the learners; parents and primary care-givers can all access the central base that is the High School. They are used to the High School, it is not seen as new or strange, but ispart of their frame of reference.

The Education system in South Africa

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights mandates that every child has access to education. This is something that our government has achieved, albeit with large discrepancies between the qualityof education received.

We have 5 Quintiles (Q1-Q5) pertaining to Education in South Africa: Q1 are the poorest schools and Q5 are the least poor. This rating determines the level of government financial support.

The Quintile rating is calculated according to national census data for the school catchment area and is based on Income, Unemployment rate and Level of Education. In other words, to determine the Quintile rating, the numbers for the ENTIRE area are pooled to produce a needs assessment.

This system resulted in Hangberg High School being categorized as a Q4 school from 1994 to 2010 when Provincial government eventually realised the reality of the Hangberg community and downgraded the school to Q2 – a low or no-fees school.

Although this re-classification is commendable the Q4 period resulted in devastating negative effects becoming entrenched in the community. Parents could not afford the Q4 school fees so their children dropped out of school. Funds that should have been used for extra-mural activities as per the Life Orientation Criteria were utilised for the basic functioning of the school. In other words, very basic education took place.

I intentionally used the terms “educates” and “schools” when describing the two different High Schools in Hout Bay. The Q5 School, Hout Bay International educates. The Q2 School, Hangberg High, schools.

The core objective of the Hangberg project is to give significant attention to this marginalization.

Our learners live in a Q2 economic environment. We provide the necessary life-skills and extra-curriculaworkshops and training so that they can bepsycho-socially on par with those at a Q5 school.

We endeavor to alleviate poverty of the mind.

Breakdown of the Hangberg Project

Community Cohesion is a chosen partner of the Hangberg Peace and Mediation Forum (PMF), an elected body with the sole mandate to address social change and economic upliftment in the Hangberg area. The PMF is the only body designated to engage with the Cape Town City Council on behalf of the Hangberg Community. It is one of the only Peace accords of its kind in the world.

It might appear unrealistic in the light of the level of need, but the PMF has strict partnership-criteria for NGO’s and other organizations wanting to operate in the area.

They insist on full community co-operation and buy in. One of their designated forum heads serves in an advisory capacity on each project. This way they ensue that the needs of the community, not the needs of the funder or NGO, are met.

This approach is key to sustainable intervention and we are proud to have been chosen as an NGO partner due to our track record and work in the Hangberg Community.

The above schematic indicates the overarching reach of the Hangberg Project.

There are 5 key people who run the entire project:

Joe Jansen:Ambassador and trainer

  • Chairman of the Community Cohesion Board.
  • Retired Principal of the Hangberg Primary School.
  • Highly respected Educator within the Western Cape Education Department.
  • Hands-on knowledge of the Hangberg community.
  • Extensive public speaking engagements as a motivational speaker.

Jacobus Mathews:School Systems Manager

  • Registered and accredited trainer and facilitator.
  • Respected elder in the Hangberg community.
  • Community liaison with government organizations.

MorKazinsky:Registered Social Worker

  • Did her Honors internship at Hangberg High School.
  • Hands-on knowledge of the Hangberg community.
  • Cum Laude graduate from UCT

Wendy Amon:Counsellor training

  • Volunteer Counsellor at the South African Police Services.
  • Served on the Hangberg High School governing body for 6 years.
  • Trained auxiliary social worker with the mandate to remove children at risk.
  • Extensive knowledge of the workings of the Hangberg community as she grew up there and still lives there with her family.

Bronwyn Moore: Co-Ordinator and Head Trainer

  • Community Cohesion Director
  • Volunteer Counsellor at the South African Police Services.
  • Ex High School teacher with Honors in Education from UCT.
  • Been working in the Hangberg community for 8 years on a voluntary basis.
  • Extensive knowledge of the Hangberg community.
  • Volunteer Counsellor at the Hangberg High School, Bethesda (NGO for the physically disabled), CARES (drug rehab centre), including home visits.
  • Regular Trainer and Guest Speaker at the Tenterden Place of Safety and the Provincial Department of Social Development.
  • Excellent relationship with the Peace and Mediation Forum.

These five people, with strategic and clearly defined roles, are able to access not only the learners at the school, but also their parents/primary care-givers in the broader community, as well as the teachers.

Since the inception of this project, as an idea, we have engaged with all the relevant stakeholders – without them it cannot be a success. The majority of the stakeholders are residents of Hangberg. Those who are not, are government agencies whose sole mandate is to alleviate the social ills in Hangberg.

Their scope and role within the Hangberg project can be defined as such:

The School governing Body:

  • Theyhave a vested interest in the success of the school and the upliftment of the learners.
  • They will be trained to be teacher aides – when a teacher is absent, to oversee the detention sessions.
  • They are community leaders and we will identify 5 to be trained as Lay Counsellors.
  • They know the learners as well as the bad elements within the community and will work the school gates at break time, in the form of security, to stop the drug dealers trying to access the learners.
  • They will also do foot patrols to monitor truant learners and get them back to school. This extends to home visits to assess the reasons for the truancy or dropping out from school.

Department of Social Development (DSD) and Child Welfare (CW):

  • Both government agencies are aware of the Hangberg project and support us as a strategic partner.
  • CW works with children aged 0-17.
  • DSD works with people aged 18 and above.
  • Our social worker will refer cases to either CW or the DSD for legal intervention and social grant assistance.
  • Likewise, both agencies will refer cases to us for monitoring.
  • In other words, there will not be duplication of work, but a solid working relationship between the government social workers and supervisors and the Community Cohesion team.

Teachers:

  • They have given their full support to the project – they do not see us as usurping their authority or reach, but supplementing it.
  • They will be free’d up to teach and not be in constant crisis management mode.
  • They will be able to see one of our Counsellors when they need to.
  • They will receive ongoing workshops – we have held a number of these with topics including The Effects of Trauma on the Brain, Conflict Resolution, Anger Management, Alternatives to Corporal Punishment and Stress Management.

Field Workers:

  • All with the required social skills training and all from the Hangberg or Imizamo Yethu community.
  • In the second phase of the Hangberg project they will be fully trained to be auxiliary Counsellors.
  • In the third phase, we will identify 2 to sponsor to study further to be auxiliary social workers.

The Community:

  • Those who have attended our Personal Development Training will be trained to lead Support groups.
  • These are 10 individuals deemed suitable by our team, including Karin Tilney, a highly respected practicing Psychologist specializing in Trauma, who is also a Community Cohesion Board Member.
  • They will specialize in Grief and Loss, Substance Dependency, HIV and Aids, Single Parents.

All of the above will take place, primarily, at the Hangberg High School AFTER regular school hours. We will hold some of the workshops at the Community Centre.

Learner Programmes in more detail:

Collaborative research (teachers, social workers, counsellors, learners) summing up the predominant issues affecting the learners:

  • Lack of inter-personal skills
  • Lack of impulse control
  • Negative world and self view
  • Lack of mediation or problem solving skills
  • High levels of physical conflict and acts of retribution
  • Consistent reactionary behavior
  • Operating from a point of attack as a coping mechanism
  • Joining gangs as a means of protection from bullies
  • Lack of positive role models
  • Diminished view of the value of a life
  • Overwhelming feeling like they are being punished for being born
  • No sense of a future
  • Suicide is seen as a viable option
  • Victimhood as the standard point of departure
  • Passive participants in their lives and life choices
  • NO CONCEPT OF ACTION AND CONSEQUENCE

These are worldwide developments affecting the youth from marginalised communities. The difference with the Hangberg Project is that it is a relatively small, cohesive community that has indicated a desire for change. It is measurable and manageable.

This does not however mean that we are under the illusion that everyone on the programme will follow through. We acknowledge that some people will not change their behavior; but at least they will be given the tools to make that choice for themselves.

Over the last year we have been offering counselling support to the learners. This is not pure counselling; it is a combination of counselling and imparting life skills. What is immediately apparent at the first session is their shock that an adult is willing to listen to what they have to say. That someone has not pre-defined them, their behavior and already made a judgment. By the second session, if they have done the life-mapping homework given to them, they are engaged and talking. By the third session they are questioning their assumptions about life and people.

Unlike in Q4-Q5 schools and areas, where learners might be in therapy, have seen a child psychologist, have parents who engage with them, our learners are notcynical towards these kinds of programmes as they have never experienced them before. Once that first shift in the Cognitive Brain occurs, they allow themselves to explore their self-programmed responses in their Mammalian and Reptile Brains.

If they continue to be challenged, engaged and have support to hold them emotionally while this shift advances, we will see the desired outcomes.

The workings of the Hangberg Project: learners

Personal Development

  • A 6 week Personal Development Course will be mandatory to all learners.
  • This will be scheduled after school hours, for an hour each week.
  • We will work grade by grade on different days.
  • By the end of the first term ALL learners will have attended and completed the Personal Development Course.

It stands to reason that the course will bring up unresolved issues that need to be dealt with. The learners, as required, will get allocated time with our social worker and then our counsellors.

Self Actualisation

  • Open to those who have indicated a desire to do the work from the Personal Development Course.
  • More intensive
  • Includes weekend retreats in nature
  • Includes assessments and community work

We will not turn anyone away but remain cogniscant of the fact that manipulation has become a survival tool for many of our learners.

Peer Leaders/Counsellors – under supervision

  • Open to those who have excelled in the Self Actualisation course.
  • They will be trained to be peer-Counsellors and Leaders.
  • This model works well at Christel House, a highly resourced school but with children from the same socio-economic background as our learners.

Youth Ambassadors – under supervision

  • The natural progression from the Self-Actualisation and Peer Leader Courses.
  • Not everyone will be emotionally equipped to be a peer-Counsellor, but they will be equipped to be Youth Ambassadors.
  • They will be the change that everyone wants to see and be in their community.
  • They will hold weekend workshops with youth at risk who did not grasp the Personal Development Course, and will endeavour to get them back on track for the third term re-cap of the course.

Additional and Rewards

In conjunction with the DSD and the Youth Development Agency (YDA) we will monitor additional youth development courses. These are held throughout the year and as partners to both agencies, we will be able to send our learners to attend.

The learners we are working with demonstrate almost immediate behavior change when they are acknowledged, complimented and recognised for the work they put in, and sometimes, just for who they are.

The system of positive reinforcement ranging through to a reward system is our favoured approach. Rewards we are working on include:

  • Weekend and school holiday camps – most of our learners have never left the Hangberg area, not even to go through to Cape Town.
  • Day trips to Heritage sites such as Robben Island, St Georges, Kirstenbosch, Table Mountain, the South African National Gallery, the Planetarium, the Company Gardens, and Parliament.

To instill a greater sense of belonging, we will partner with the following NGO’s and organisations:

  • A local surfing and life saving NGO in Hout Bay and sponsor the training for those learners who indicate a desire to volunteer.
  • The emergency response units in Hout Bay, including Civics, Fire and Rescue, Paramedics and the Working for Water project. Our learners will receive training and will then volunteer their time to the broader community.
  • Bethesda Group for the disabled. Our learners will assist over school holidays to work with disabled children.
  • Hangberg Elderly.
  • The Hangberg greening and environmental project which is run by the Chair of the school governing body.
  • Cleaning, painting and greening the Hangberg High School.

All of these additional activities will be monitored as we know that the learners are, in essence, representing us and the Hangberg Project.