FAR programme continues to inspire the youth of Fairvale Secondary

AS part of the Family Awareness and Recovery (FAR) programme at Fairvale Secondary School, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) psychiatric nursing students continued working with the learners through empowering initiatives.

The students recently did three weeks of counselling to find ways to uplift and improve the mental health of the learners at the school.

“We also created a vegetable garden with the students to encourage them to work on a new skill and work on their mental health. We did an intervention with a guest speaker who spoke about drug and substance abuse and its impacts on mental health,” said UKZN nursing student, Nicole Luis.

The group also put out a plea to the Bluff community to donate books to the school library. “The response was incredible with over 100 books donated. This would allow students to have a safe space and new books to read. We just want to say a huge thank you to all those that donated books and Bluff Spar for sponsored 80 food parcels to the school. The hampers consisted of 2.5kg maize meal, 1kg samp, toothpaste, sanitary pads, soup, noodles and a bar of soap,” thanked, Nicole.

FAR is a leadership programme directed to teenagers focusing on clean living and positive personal growth, while also addressing the dangers of substance abuse. This is done through interactive talks and projects, trips, events, weekly health educational talks from UKZN nursing students and testimonies from guest speakers.

The initiative was introduced at the school in 2007 but has since grown into a fully-fledged programme in partnership with Jirah Academy, which assists with funding, as well as UKZN Nursing School.

For more information contact Calvin Stephanus on 083-433-0410 or Fairvale Secondary on 031-468-4409.