Author: Neftaly Malatjie

The report is meant to capture the creative nature, energy and mood of the event with the hope of inspiring the participants further by recording some of the key strands of the conversations and energies that were generated during this period.

The report also aims to highlight the key questions raised, the core insights gained, and further thoughts of the participants on the way forward. It is hoped that participants can share the conversations and emerging insights with their respective organisations and carry some of the thinking and inspiration on reflective learning and development into other spaces. This way, the inspiration, energy and creativity that was generated at the event is meant to live on and inform an enduring learning practice in the partnership of SeViSSA.

• Facilitate a process of reflection and learning for SeViSSA partners in order to draw out concrete evidence and the impact of the programme.

• Facilitate sharing and peer review of the specific project intervention strategies developed and employed by each partner, that is the practical procedures and methods, and the outcomes thereof. This will help in developing evidence-based and replicable strategies for SeViSSA and duly acknowledge the respective partners as well as ‘patent’ their methods.

• Stakeholder analysis in order to identify influential and supportive anchors for systemic change within the different systems the partners are working from.

• Facilitating a space to surface the partners’ perceptions to the multiple possibilities and ways of understanding and practicing monitoring, evaluation and reporting as a way of growing and learning constantly.

• Allowing participants to discover their own energy and meaning in learning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, and give them the confidence and space to discover that they can take charge of and responsibility for defining and shaping reflective learning practices that serve their needs and nurture their own development and growth.

Women on Farms Project	FASFacts	Goedgedacht Farm
Focus: Reducing historical social injustices and inequalities in rural communities   Model: Empower and build capacity to claim rights and advocate to access services   Life skills (math classes, career guidance, book clubs, financial support) Rights and Access to Services (radio program, action plans, community dialogues, educational drama) Psychosocial wellbeing camps, support groups, referrals)   What have we learnt? Review and revive strategic Importance of community participation Document and analyse Build safety and participation Integrate women in other groups MEL effectively   What have we been good at? Being flexible Building agency Taking a systems approach.   What are we grappling with? Resources	Focus: Tackling Foetal Alcohol Syndrome   Model: Building awareness and empowering communities, prevention and providing support to pregnant women.   BOB program (Experiential learning and responsibility) Mentorship Program (providing support to pregnant women) Parenting skills (coping mechanisms and getting young mothers to complete school) Training of Trainers Adopt a Cop CP and CD (better education, better future)   What have we learnt? Communities are in need of support and safe spaces.  Collaboration with other NGOs in making a difference. The importance of creating more awareness of FAS   Want to learn advocacy and community dialogues. What have we been good at? Building relationships with mentors and cops and the impact on our success.   Community involvement means people go beyond what the program can do (mentors).  Collaborate with other partners. Linking schools with mentors.   What are we grappling with? To capture positive stories, reporting and debriefing (teambuilding)   What would we do differently? Target more communities and run parenting course in more schools. Work with parents Understanding better why girls get pregnant Measure impact from early on Generating income activities for mentors and pregnant women.	Focus:  Path out of Poverty Transforming rural communities (sustainability and self-development)   Model: Life skills and Chicken tractor   What have we learnt? That we need to be more focused – the small will have an enormous ripple effect. Capturing every moment Ways of communicating with participants so that they can open up more with community Understanding and working with the budget Focus more on planning Working on stakeholder relationships   What have we been good at? Communicating with the communities and building relationships.   What are we grappling with? Seasonal times – struggling to get participants to workshops.   What would we do differently? Focusing more on working in schools – so many different issues affecting children’s lives.

The workshop used an appreciative inquiry and it was framed as a joint learning process to identify, share and validate the experiences and evidence from the partners’ projects. The workshop methodology comprised a range of facilitator-led discussions in plenary and in small groups; writing/journaling; peer reflection/peer coaching; experiential exercises and reflection; right-brain/creative exercises; checking in and out of the day; debriefings; and presentations from participants in plenary. The experiences and perspectives of the participants were incorporated in the discussions.

Overview:

• To provide an overview of the different organizational interventions in relation to SeViSSA

Intentions:

• To build the collective picture of the different interventions and how they contribute to the SeViSSA outcomes
• To surface emerging lessons from implementation by different partners;

Organisations were asked to answer the following and present it to the whole group:

• Name of organizationWhat are they doing in SeViSSA (What is the model or theory of change)What have they learnt thus far? What else is there still to learn?What have they been really good at?What are they grappling with?What would they do differently and why?

Below is an overview of the presentations from the different provinces

Gauteng Coalition

Afrika Tikkun	Childline	Education with Enterprise Trust (EWET)	SAYPro
Focus: Fighting against sexual violence in schools   Model: Using different methods to capacitate youth to say no to GBV and advocate for their rights. AV Buddies/Clubs Lesson Plans and CAPS Child Protection Project National School Safety Framework Tree of Life Diversity and Human Rights Leadership skills Developing young people from cradle to career Say no to GBV Strengthening working relationships among coalition members     What have we learnt? Our interventions work best when led by young people themselves.   Want to learn how to sustain program beyond funding.   What have we been good at? Building and strengthening relationship with other stakeholders such as parents, health facilities, SGBs, religious communities, schools, local municipalities.   What are we grappling with? Involving families and the communities.   What would we do differently? Developing interventions that will enable us to strengthen our relationships with parents and other community stakeholders, including gatekeepers.	Focus: Providing psycho-social support for abused children and strengthening families   Model: Provide therapeutic sessions that are child centered and empower parents with skills and knowledge.   Empowered with information that will help them make informed decision and help them heal from traumatic experiences and provide good support and be role models to other children. l   One on one session Therapeutic groups Parenting Groups   What have we learnt? We need to work more with parents because if they lack knowledge and skills this affects their children (we depend on them to accompany and believe in the program)   What have we been good at? For the children who have been to sessions, parents come back to us and thank us for what we have done.   What are we grappling with? Finances, we can’t help everybody and sometimes transport costs prevent people from coming for help.   What would we do differently? Provide therapy from schools because it is cheaper and you can attend to many children from one school	Focus: Providing entrepreneurship education to educators and learners   Model: Participation in coalition with SAYPRO.  A standard base for purpose of M&E reporting.  Interlinked and shared activities. Institution capacity by partners.   What have we learnt and we are good at? Good at facilitating for provision of entrepreneurial education (EE) – learners starting own businesses and practically manage them. We do teacher training on EE, learner leadership training and good at formation and nurturing of learning partnerships for purposes of facilitating EE.  Establishment of stakeholder collaboration and meeting forum.    What are we grappling with? As we scale up, we grapple with partner facilitating the EE program and implementation as per activity plan.   What would we do differently? Further develop capacity to take over the management of the programs on the ground until the partner is fully versed in implementation processes.  Also to involve parents and SG in facilitating skills development of the learners.	Focus: Poverty2Jobs by changing the way young people think about themselves. (Partner with EWET)   Model: Providing entrepreneurship education in 3 schools.   What have we learnt? How to deliver the EE program How to sustain relationships with beneficiaries The importance of nurturing and supporting learners and engaging parents.   What have we been good at? We are good at facilitating and guiding YES clubs – engaging learners in practical and focused programs.  Providing educational support.     What are we grappling with? Efficient communication and delivering on the action plan and decision-making.

Overview:

• Welcome, introductions, intentions and programme, social contract

Intentions:

• Familiarise participants with the intentions, ways of working and the envisioned process for the 3 days, get to know one another, agree to ways of working/social contract and commit to quality attention and joint care for process
• Anchoring the process
• Finding and holding the energy

• Official welcome by Mampe on behalf of NMCF 

Since SeViSSA started, this is first Learning and Reflection event.  Key areas that need to be addressed are the reporting elements and demonstrating evidence of impact of the amazing work being done.

• Facilitators introduce themselves.  Overview of methods and facilitation as container:
  • Seamless co-creation/co-facilitation
  • Various streams of conversations
  • Free writing/journaling
  • Peer reflection/peer coaching
  • Experiential exercises and joint reflections
  • Right brain/creative exercises
  • Check in and check out daily
    
    
• Introductions (each person introduce themselves and their organization, province) and check-in

Participants checked in in with the overall feeling that is in their body, mind or spirit at that moment.

• Intention and process

Participants were asked to write themselves a welcome note to the workshop, comprising 3 sentences. They were also asked to set their own intentions for the workshop, thus at the end of the 3 days, if this workshop has been a success and worth my time x, y and z should have happened for me.

Overview of the intentions shared by participants…

• To learn new ideas, skills, and tools from others and share stories and experiences;
  • To participate fully, be energetic, cooperative, have fun and a positive attitude;
  • Learn what others are doing and be inspired;
  • To engage, ask questions, give feedback, listen and reflect;
  • To assess if on right track, identify ways to improve or grow the work and fill gaps;
  • To see how to take back and implement new knowledge;
  • To process, unpack and learn lessons from the work;
  • To improve on report-writing (tell the stories of impact);
  • To be able to single out a SeViSSA child from the rest;
  • To explore different issues and context of different coalitions and also best practices;
  • To explore good communication with each other and share different strategies;
  • To feel confident in the work that is being done;
  • To learn about self-care strategies (emotional wellbeing) from others;
  • Identify a way forward beyond SeViSSA;
  • To celebrate all the work and acknowledge the knowledge and experiences;
  • To treat each other with respect;
  • Improve ways of working and enable achieving of results;
  • To move from activity to impact in reporting (change made is missing);

• The following Social contract (agreement on ways of working) was agreed with the participants;
  • Trust allowance, emergent process
  • One meeting, one forum (speak through the facilitator)
  • Take responsibility for co-creation
  • Principle of 50:50 – give and take
  • Take responsibility or personal care and comfort
  • Embrace diversity – different ways of looking and see
  • Time management – use time efficiently
  • Being respectful
  • Ease up and have fun and colour in process
  • Phone on silent/vibration (answer responsibly and respectfully)

Each day participants volunteered for roles as process facilitators, time keepers and energizers. Sharing of these roles between the lead facilitators and participants helped (i) to maintain a tight energy container for the workshop, and (ii) to underscore the joint responsibility for a successful event.

Khula Community Development Project

UMTAPO Centre

Working with 80% girls and 20% boys.  22 schools in 9 villages. Focusing on quality teaching and learning (section 29 of the constitution).  Right to education.   Key areas: Access to social security Access to education (scholar transport)   Profiling families to do audit and design intervention plan.  Training on positive parenting Identity child headed households to offer support Balancing access to justice Legal clinics Child rights representations Reading material Consolidation of policies Holding those in position of power accountable through litigation (et scholar transport, school infrastructure, issues on grants, issues of id documents or birth certificates, child friendly colours)   Also issues of forced marriages and trafficking in Eastern Cape.

Model: Conscientisation, popular education, empowerment, mobilisation Leadership camps (learners, women in community, Ubuntu community farm) Community dialogues Intergenerational dialogues (men) Women seminars Community roadshows or campaigns Stakeholder forums Sports tournaments   What have we learnt? Entry point – tribal The importance of site visits Use of media   Want to learn ways of updating ourselves and using the right tools for reporting.   What have we been good at? Community mobilization Documentation Formation of forums   What are we grappling with? Bridging the gap between service provider and forums

Overview:

• To provide some insight into the beneficiaries that SeViSSA work with and also key issues emerging from the context

Intentions:

• To build a common understanding of the SeViSSA woman or child;
• To highlight key challenges or questions emerging from the work to date;

• Empathy Map as entry point to understand context and issues of the beneficiaries

Partners were asked to unpack what they considered would be what a SeViSSA child or non-SeViSSA child would think, say, feel or do.  They also had to do this for a SeViSSA woman and non-SeViSSA woman.

A SeViSSA woman:   Thinks: I have power over the situation of abuse Better understanding of what is happeningThere is hope for the futureI can take initiative   Says: I am empowered because of the training, I know my rightsI am a leaderMy voice will be heardMy children must learn lifeskills   Feels: Worthy, as if she belongs, confident and she can take control   Does: She stops abusing alcoholShe takes practical steps to implement the programReports abuseParticipates in leadership developmentShe takes action

A SeViSSA child:   Thinks: I can do things.Has a changed mindset   Says: I will speak out and report abuseEmpower othersShares info   Feels: Appreciated, valued, acknowledged, confident, safe.   Does: Take up issues at schoolPerform better at schoolMake better choicesRespects other girlsIs a leader at school and other activities

A Non-SeViSSA child   Thinks: Its ok to sleep with a sugar daddy to get money for toiletriesMy parents don’t support meI can do what I wantI don’t know what to doI am bad, I deserve what is happening to me, it is my faultThis relationship is not good (does not know its an abusive relationship)   Says: I am on my ownIts better to drop out of schoolI am doing things my wayThey say I have rights but I don’t know how to get them   Feels: Lonely, scared, abandoned, disempowered, alone   Doing: She leaves schoolShe joins a gangFalls pregnantTake anything coming her way

• Discussion about the context of the work and issues emerging following the empathy map exercise

Partners indicated that the exercise was useful in starting to consider what might be different about the women and children that the programme comes into contact with and what are other issues that the work has surfaced over the course of the programme implementation in the various provinces. Below are some key categories of issues that emerged from the conversation:

The environment

• The individual cannot be separated from the environment, system or context they exist in.  Whilst it is useful to look and understand the users’ thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and even motivations, the reality is that that simply working with them and not doing anything about the environment is irresponsible. 

• The empowerment that happens for women and girls are important and necessary and part of the empowerment framework. This framework focuses on their power within, however, once these women and girls have been empowered with knowledge about their rights, in some contexts there is not the requisite services for them to access to realize these rights.

• The current reality in South Africa is that the criminal justice system is overstretched and unable to deal with current volume of abuse cases.  There is also a feeling that the policies and stakeholders working in this area is somewhat stagnant (fatigued) by the persistence of violence. 

• It highlights a gap between the gains of SeViSSA versus the law/policy arena.

Issues of sustainability….

• There is a sense that the programme is now starting to see changes within the context as a result of the interventions, and a feeling of satisfaction with the outcomes of SeViSSA.
  
  
  • A key issue is what would happen beyond the funding of NMCF or Comic Relief.
    
    
  • It is important to acknowledge the various resources that are available and make some critical decisions of what is possible to do given the lessons learnt thus far.
    
    
  • On another level, issues of sustainability have to also be taken into account in the strategy. Here the empowerment framework is important so that the SeViSSA beneficiaries themselves are given voice, visibility and capacity to start speaking out and addressing issues beyond the organisations that are currently doing the work.

Now that the SeViSSA programme is at this point, so what?

• Partners are still learning about the beneficiaries. The issues that impact them, the victim/perpetrator dynamic, the dynamics of poverty and power etc.
  
  
  • Partners may need to share the models and stories;
    
    
  • Partners may need popularise the empowerment framework and how it has worked or not worked in the SeViSSA context;
    
    
  • Partners may need to do better at showing the impact of the work so that others could take on some aspects in their existing strategies;

What is missing?

• Critical consideration of the sustainability challenges, how are the beneficiaries involved in strategy and priority identification?
  
  
  • Balancing the rights and responsibility aspect in the delivery of the interventions.

Implementation Challenges……..

• The context of work on sexual and gender-based violence seems to be driven by events rather than strategy.  This often is fragmented and sometimes organisations allow it because they may consider the possibilities of developing longer term relationships with government and other key stakeholders. Also makes it difficult to hold these stakeholders accountable.
  
  
  • SeViSSA has opened up hope and space and the response from the communities are overwhelming and it puts pressure on the organisations who are not always able to respond or follow up every single case.

• There seem to be exploitation and abuse of SeViSSA partners by some government departments that rush to showcase partners’ work on important occasions and gain mileage out of it yet they do not render any meaningful support towards such work. This is also part of the rhetoric that is at play.

• Too many hands in the cockpit: government, private sector, civil society and religious groups.

• There is a challenge in building effective relationships, and ample room for sharing of strategies among partners.

Emotional impact of the SeViSSA work

• Most of the organisations indicated that there is a need for regular debriefing, but this is not budgeted for currently;
  
  
  • A key emerging question for the programme to engage is, “who cares for the carers?”