Displaying good behaviour and achieving academic excellence go hand-in-hand and that is what the Tunnel Project aims to foster by equipping at risk pupils with skills to become future leaders.
The project was initiated last year through a partnership between the Guardian Angel Educational, Environmental, Entrepreneurial, Intrapreneurial Network (GAEEEIN), the University of the Western Cape (UWC), and Silverstream and Easter Peak primary schools.
GAEEEIN, a non-profit organisation which was founded in 2013, hosts youth workshops to address challenges which youngsters face, and provide them with the skills to overcome them.
Through the Tunnel Project they have identified 50 at-risk pupils from grades 1 to 5 at the two primary schools and have worked on holistically rehabilitating them through counselling sessions, skills development, sport, and other activities with the aim to intervene at an early age and prevent these pupils from being recruited into gangs.
On Wednesday October 17, they held a workshop at Silverstream Primary School in Manenberg to showcase the children’s progress to their parents and also invited various stakeholders who serve as positive role models in the community.
These included the police; the Mass participation, Opportunity and access, Development and growth (MOD) Programme; help2read, and the Hope Project.
Part of the day’s activities included table tennis, a game of broken telephone, soccer, and three legged race which taught pupils the importance of teamwork and communication.
Director and founding member of GAEEEIN, Christol Moses, said one of the findings of the project was that children from underprivileged areas lacked positive role models.
“Bullying is also another challenge that came up as well as behavioural problems. We teach them basic morals and values and the importance of right from wrong. We also build portfolios of family narratives including what impacts the family and creative expressions where they share their feelings,” she said.
Ms Moses said once that had been completed she hosted one-on-one sessions with each child to learn more about them and then met with the teachers to discuss the findings as well as the challenges they faced with the child in class to establish how to bridge the gap.
“Our aim is to bring both schools’ educators together and host a workshop to discuss their challenges and also support each other because they often feel isolated. Crime is rife in these areas and early inception is needed,” she said.
UWC social work student, Samkelo Jada, said child neglect, domestic abuse, gangsterism, drug abuse, and unemployment were among the issues that put children at risk of socio-economic ills.
She said often it was difficult for younger children to express themselves through words so they were given tasks to complete instead.
“After that we meet with their parents or grandparents and their educators about possible rehabilitation.
“However, many of the parents are uninterested and child neglect is seen. These children are exposed to all sorts of violence and aggression at home and in return they act out at school,” she said.
Acting deputy principal of the school, Rushana Fisher, said she hoped the pupils had learnt how to better handle a stressful situation rather than fighting, adding that bad behaviour was a huge problem at the school and that teachers were not adequately equipped to deal with it.
“We are not equipped to handle this kind of extreme behaviour that we have seen from pupils. Our hands are tied, corporal punishment has been banned and even parents are too scared to discipline their kids. When we call them in they tell us that they too can’t handle their children’s behavioural issues,” she said.
“Good behaviour and academics go hand-in-hand. If you can’t behave, your academics will go down. The problem is that our children are safe here at the school but once they are dismissed they are exposed to different types of violence and tomorrow when they get to school they display what they have seen to the first person they see – the teacher who evidently doesn’t know how to handle it,” she said.