Gogos graduate from parenting skills course
A group of grandmothers from the Valley of 1 000 Hills were given the opportunity to take part in a parenting skills course at Embo Craft.
THE Embo Craft Centre in Botha’s Hill was the scene of much celebration when 16 grannies celebrated the completion of a five-week Parenting Skills training course recently.
The course, which aimed to help the grandmothers to better understand and connect with their grandchildren, was the second such course of the year arranged by the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust.
All 16 of the course’s participants are members of the Centre’s Granny Support Groups programme which currently focuses on supporting and uplifting more than 2 000 grannies from the Valley of 1 000 Hills. Many of these grannies are left to care and provide for their grandchildren after they have been orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. “My children and the whole family have already benefitted,” said one of the graduating grannies. “For example, after we were taught about sex education, I went home and told my grandchildren about the dangers of having unprotected sex or sex at too early an age.”
Learning how to discuss sensitive topics with children and young people is just one of the skills that was covered as part of the training explained the course facilitator, Smah White of Fli Hi Training. “We were honoured to deliver this training course and help these inspiring women to be more effective parents to their children and grandchildren. Raising children in today’s times who have already endured the trauma of losing one or both of their parents is certainly no easy task, especially when there is now a generation gap to bridge too.”
The Hillcrest AIDS’s Centre Trust is a non-profit organisation providing unconditional love and hope to HIV/AIDS-impacted communities in the Valley of 1 000 Hills. To make a donation and support the work done by the organisation, visit its website at www.hillaids.org.za or contact 031 765 5866.
