Nthabiseng, Irie, and Khelera Sikou Projects

 

Sesana[1] told the group, “Staci, I learned that I could be a doctor.” This would not be a subversive comment, if you didn’t know where she lived. But in her context, it certainly was; this little girl lived in Diepsloot Informal Settlement, Johannesburg, South Africa, where she has lived for 12 years in abject poverty, chronic violence, and surrounded by HIV/AIDS.

 

For 10 weeks, Sesana had participated in the Nthabiseng Project that I developed in South Africa. She was my first teacher and student. She made me understand that giving access to education to young girls and women has far reaching possibilities for their lives, families, and communities. In 2000, I received three individual grants to manage, develop, and implement a 10-week violence prevention and intervention program in Diepsloot Informal Settlement, Johannesburg, South Africa. A year and half later, the Nthabiseng (Make Me Happy) project served 250 children and youth and 20 teachers. In partnership with a local small non-governmental organization (NGO), The Nthabiseng Project continues to run and serves a new group of 16 children and youth every 10 weeks. I have developed, designed, planned, and implemented two other similar programs in Jamaica (Irie, 2010) and Nepal (Khelera Sikou, 2012).

 

These programs work with children and youth using the arts and literacy to strengthen the participant’s personal voice and open discourse for other alternative, pro-social ways of reducing violence in schools and the greater communities. All three programs have three critical adult learning components: 1) 6-8 hour training; 2) on-going coaching for three weeks; and 3) community-based learning.

 

The Nthabiseng, Irie and Khelera Sikou programs are three-fold:

1) To support the fundamental right of a child’s voice in the classroom, community and the world around them;

2) To promote literacy through the use of story-telling, rewriting a new story and presenting stories to peers;

3) To create a place of safety for the participant to express their feelings using art.

 

All three programs are running in their respective countries, which have taken their program and made it their own. I continue to help them by writing grants.

 

 

[1] Permission was granted to use our story and her name.