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NATIONAL NEWS & VIDEO - “Children exposed to violence at home are more likely to adopt aggressive behaviour themselves. These children manifest continued aggression throughout their lives as part of a cycle of intergenerational violence.”
This is according to a 2022 study by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the University of Cape Town (UCT).
“It is not just the presence of violence that creates the cycle, it is also the absence of warm, secure relationships with healthy adult role models. For emotionally and socially well-adjusted children to reach healthy adulthood, secure parental attachment is required,” says psychiatrist John Bowlby’s attachment theory.
Mikhulu Trust director Kaathima Ebrahim, who is a member of the South African Parenting Programme Implementers Network (Sappin), says while violence is a global phenomenon that impacts all families, it remains a particularly persistent problem in South Africa.
She highlights why parents need healing before they can adequately create safe family spaces at home, and how Sappin brings hope to broken families.
“Children build better resilience and have a higher chance of fulfilling their potential, completing school and developing useful skills if their parents and caregivers spend quality time with them. This includes providing cognitive stimulation, managing bad behaviour, disciplining without violence and teaching self-regulation, en route to real mental well-being,” Ebrahim explains.
The study revealed that mothers who live in poverty are more likely to use physical punishment or leave their children unsupervised and are less likely to be affectionate towards their children.
“Given the high numbers of people living in poverty, how can these parents heal themselves? South African parents cannot rely on government given that official support for parenting and families is almost non-existent and 98% of social services are provided by civil society in the form of independent NGOs. Parents also cannot wait for help from individual NGOs, which are chronically under-resourced and under-funded,” she adds.
VIDEO: The story of SAPPIN
Here, she says, Sappin plays an important role. “As a network of NGOs, Sappin uses evidence-based research to develop and support parenting programmes across South Africa, with the mandate of helping parents overcome their own problems and build lasting and enduring family relationships.”
Sappin member and educational psychologist Katharine Frost says the earlier parents receive help, the better. “The first 1 000 days [after child birth] are critical. Psychologically, they [the parents] set the foundation for a child’s future.”
In South Africa, one in every five children (21.3%) does not live with a parent and only one in three (32.7%) lives with both parents.
According to Sappin, this absent nuclear family structure is frequently blamed for many of the crises our children face, including intergenerational violence. “However, when it comes to raising children who are emotionally, socially and behaviourally well-developed, family structure is not as important as setting.”
She believes the key variable is not two parents. “It is whether or not parents and caregivers are mentally healthy and whether they themselves have experienced fragmented relationships with the adults in their lives. This is why Sappin intends to drive advocacy and policy change in the South African parent/child landscape and to co-develop, research and implement new parenting programmes and models for dissemination to stakeholders.”
Ebrahim says the network intends to ensure that quality parenting programmes, and a wider range of interventions, are consistently available across the country.
“By uniting relevant NGOs, Sappin drives collective organisation, co-ordination and a bigger formalised voice for the parenting sector; by undertaking fundraising, communication and advocacy, it actively drives policy change; by researching, co-developing and implementing new parenting programmes, it serves different NGOs across the network and across the country.”
According to the network, Sappin has directly supported almost 20 000 families with parenting programmes and reached over three million parents through information and awareness.
“Our new violence prevention programme Free to Grow – Family Violence Prevention Programme in a Workplace, is delivered as a workplace intervention, sponsored and supported by employers. Because the programme is implemented at work, the logistical burden on parents is lighter and it is easier for them to commit to attending. It is also scalable,” Ebrahim shares.
The programme is spearheaded by Sappin, the ISS and the Seven Passes Initiative and demonstrates that working together and building collective capacity multiplies the individual resources of NGOs, enabling more significant impacts.
“This is exactly the type of intervention model that has the potential to change the prospects for real violence prevention in South Africa,” she concludes.
