Traditional healers have called for collaboration with development and government agencies in order to share skills and improve service provision.
This after they attended a Family Indaba with residents to explore ways of reducing family violence, divorce and related social ills affecting the community.
The Family Indaba, convened by Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training [ADAPT], identified the causes of domestic violence and divorce as lack of harmony in the home, social stress from poverty, unemployment and conflict between traditional practices and the human rights culture.
The healers Magdeline Magaukele and Nkele Mashifane said ADAPT had assisted them with skills in listening, counselling, mediation and referral. Magaukele said, “While healing is an ancestral calling, these skills assisted us to complete the cycle of services to clients and the community.” She said counselling skills helped them to stabilise the emotional conditions of clients before they [healers] could administer herbal and other treatments. “They also help us to calm down tensions between family members and spouses.”
She urged all healers to acquire the art of referring work they could not deal with to other professions such as HIV/AIDS treatment and drug rehabilitation.
She further stressed the need for community members to attend workshops with them to exchange information on the healing practice. This she said will improve the community’s knowledge of how the healing practice resolves many social ills and stresses impacting family members. Mashifane added that collaborating with the community would create a climate of trust, help combat myths about traditional healing as witchcraft and protect the community from pseudo healers.
Details: ADAPT; 011 440 4047.
