University’s community caregiver certificate spreads across the continent

A South African university’s collaborative certificate in community-based work with vulnerable children and youth has mushroomed following the success of a pilot study, and is currently being implemented in 10 Sub-Saharan countries through the work of the African Centre for Childhood.

The programme has spawned a concept that academics and organisers are calling “situated supported distance learning” for the environment of trust its methodology has created among community caregivers, with essential grassroots skills given an appropriate academic orientation.

The African Centre for Childhood, or ACC, grew from a collaboration between the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative – a KwaZulu-Natal-based non-profit committed to reducing the social and emotional impact of poverty, conflict and HIV-Aids among children and youth – and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), with support from the Eastern and Southern Africa arm of UNICEF, UNICEF-Esaro.

A case study of the project, titled “A Distance Learning Programme for African Community Caregivers: Building resilience and hope”, was presented at the second QS-MAPLE conference held in Durban last week by Dr Bev Killian, a senior lecturer in UKZN’s school of applied human sciences and one of the programme’s initiators and academic coordinators.

The UKZN team has been involved in writing workbooks, overseeing and developing the curriculum and collaborating with partners at the universities of Swaziland and Lesotho, the Namibia College of Open Learning, Mzimansi College in Uganda and Nondolo College in Zambia among several others.

The programme – which affirms and integrally uses indigenous knowledge systems – provides formal tertiary qualifications for community caregivers working in the African child and youth sector. It is based, says Killian, on social learning principles that aim to build knowledge, skills and attitudes that are relevant to the specific contexts in which caregivers work.

It was developed in direct response to a survey of facilitators working primarily with children affected by HIV and Aids, conflict, poverty and displacement in Africa, which found that their lack of formal qualifications, combined with lack of recognition of their efforts, was a primary source of stress.

The survey also identified that many facilitators live in extremely adverse circumstances and are themselves in dire need of psychosocial support.

Grounded in strengths-based practices, the goal of the programme – besides providing essential and relevant learning – was to alleviate stress among community caregivers and to develop resilience and build hope, which in turn would cascade to the children, families and communities in which they work.

In the pilot phase, it reached nearly 500 students in seven Sub-Saharan African countries.

“Unregulated training programmes in rural areas peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” says Killian. People made a ton of money out of these, but questions remained regarding how much they benefited communities.

“What we hoped to do was draw a clear distinction between training programmes and education,” says Killian.

“The objective is to develop communities of reflective practitioners who can respond effectively and relevantly to the psychosocial needs of the children, families and communities. The programme was developed to be grounded in existing practices, acknowledge prior learning, and delivers theoretical and empirically based information and skills.

“We needed to give knowledge and information. We wanted to expand this to incorporate traditional knowledge and skills. Home-based care in those rural areas is largely performed by community caregivers who volunteer time and energy and are willing to help out of good will, religious beliefs or a sense of empathy and rapport. They live in and are trusted by the communities.

“We wanted to develop both communities and confidence. We didn’t want a town-versus-gown idea. We wanted them to value what they were already doing.”

Using distance learning and group participation methodologies, the students progress through six modules: self-development and reflective practice; human rights and child protection; child and youth development; child, family and community support; community development; and finally, a service-learning module.

Independent evaluation has shown the programme as strongly positive in terms of the relevance of the content and in terms of its relevance to the different forms of adversity.

Remarkable, says Killian, has been the environment of trust created where learners can feel sufficiently comfortable and supported to openly discuss and share challenges to the point of saying what was, and what was not, working. Hence the “situated supported distance learning” concept.

Initially, says Killian, the idea was for the UKZN team to ultimately hand over and exit the project. “But we’ve developed good relations and real collaboration and partnerships. These have opened the door to the possibility of good research options and real doctorate possibilities for our students.”

Plans are afoot to export the programme to other African countries.