High school learners from two inner city schools have completed the Silence the Violence programme, and have learned that there are alternatives to crime and violence.
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Former top student Johannes says the Khulisa programme has had a ripple effect in his life
OHANNES was the top student at Barnato Park High School, before his fall. He's in his late teens and likes adding a bit of street style to his school uniform - baggy grey pants, loosely knotted tie and white shirt hanging out below his waist.
Tall, with his hair shaved, Johannes is poised and articulate; he often lifts his shoulders boldly when speaking, as if to boast of his burly chest. He blithely recounts his former life, speaking of drugs, alcohol abuse, violence, anguish and anger, but says it is all in the past. Change came when he enrolled in Silence the Violence, a programme run by the Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative.
Commissioned by the City's department of community development, Silence the Violence targets young people and is designed to restore, rehabilitate and reintegrate essential life skills in their lives. It was developed by an independent researcher, Dr Marelize Schoeman, who conducted pre- and post-implementation research on violent behaviour, its causes and effects.
Schoeman analysed and evaluated the individual needs of 278 Joburg learners, drawing up a suitable programme to match those needs. Silence the Violence is designed to help participants to confront their violent selves and discover their original or true selves through a series of facilitated therapeutic techniques, she explains.
Pupils from Barnato Park and New Nation high schools, in Berea and Hillbrow, were selected to participate in the programme because they lived in the Region F suburbs, which are deemed vulnerable to crime and, among many things, substance abuse.
The two schools were selected by social workers from the department of community development and the South African Police Service, who were asked to recommend schools with a history of learners involved in some form of violent behaviour. The programme was run throughout scheduled life orientation lessons.
Khulisa contributes to tackling crime holistically, diverting youngsters from the criminal justice system through providing alternatives to imprisonment and fostering personal transformation, says Schoeman.
A non-profit organisation, it provides education, training and personal development in communities, schools, places of safety and prisons. Its work is based on a belief in human potential and the need to unlock this potential for the benefit of the individual and society.
Offering alternatives
"Silence the Violence takes participants on a journey of self-discovery in which they become aware of the extent and origins of their own violence, and introduces effective, non-violent alternatives," Schoeman says. The programme, she explains, illustrates how violence - be it physical, emotional or verbal - can be ingrained in culture and belief systems and how it emerges in daily interactions.
Khulisa graduate Tendai Tshivhase is congratulated by Councillor Kenosi Malatsi and the Metro Police Chief Chris Ngcobo
Pointing out that violence can be identified by aggressive verbal, emotional and physical acts, including abusing substances, bullying and name calling, Schoeman says the programme offers practical ways to minimise violent behaviour.
During her research, she has found that the programme enhances participants' awareness of what constitutes violent behaviour and infringements of human rights and dignity, and what increases their sense of hope that they will be able to lead a positive life.
Johannes has completed the Silence the Violence tutorials and exercises, and agrees that it has had a positive effect on his life, which he says, "used to be a wreck. I wouldn't listen to my parents; I drank and smoked on my way to school and on weekends; and I treated people badly." He now describes this as "wicked and a recipe for disaster".
However, when the City introduced the Khulisa programme he had to examine his past and his place in society, and "really discover what I wanted to achieve in my future".
"I then started to ask myself many questions. At first I was a bit reluctant to join the programme, but I pushed myself to the extreme, until I came to comprehend the message that was being preached to our lives.
"If it wasn't for this programme, my life and those of my mates would still be reduced to rubble," Johannes says. It had been a beacon of hope for him and his friends.
Workshops
As part of Khulisa, pupils complete a series of workshops and get certificates for their participation at the end of the course. More than 278 learners from Region F took part in this year's programme, which has been labelled "an innovative behaviour change programme designed to strengthen youth development in the City and curb violent behaviour levied at themselves and others", reads a press statement.
Thomas Phakathi, the member of the mayoral committee for public safety, notes that Khulisa is a significant programme because its beneficiaries end up making amazing shifts in their attitudes and behaviour.
"These learners now have the tools to make better informed decisions about the kind of life they want to pursue." Khulisa forms part of the City's broader focus on youngsters, "because we realise the youth are a vulnerable group and need assistance and support".
Over the past three years, the community development department has designed programmes that focus on youth.
Yashina Pillay, Khulisa's Gauteng area manager, says evidence shows that across the country children and the youth are increasingly perpetrating and becoming victims of crime and violence.
Addressing the cause
"This has a profound effect on the development of young people as well-adapted, healthy and socialised individuals who can positively contribute towards society. Recognising this trend within its own boundaries, [the] City of Joburg had the foresight to address the cause and not just the symptoms of violent behaviour," Pillay explains.
Of the 278 pupils, 16 Barnato Park High learners graduated from the programme on 29 October. Speakers at the event included the councillor, Kenosi Malatsi; Barbara Holtmann, who spearheads crime prevention research at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research; and the chief of the Johannesburg metropolitan police department, Chris Ngcobo.
"I think this is a very credible and worthwhile project which has had a tremendous impact on these young people, because everything that happens in this school has a ripple effect," noted the principal, Agnes Nugent, speaking at the graduation ceremony.
"Congratulations to the pupils for remaining committed to the programme. I want to say that I admire you. Please go out there and spread the word to your peers, tell them what you have learned and how it has changed your lives," Nugent said.
Encouraging other pupils during the ceremony, Johannes said: "This programme has taught us that we can do anything we want without involving anger or violence in our behaviour. I like subscribing to the Bible adage that there is nothing impossible with God.
"We have the potential as the youth to make decisive life-changing decisions which can have a possible effect on our future, so forward we go."
Steady work
Although Khulisa has a ripple effect on the lives of those who participate, Schoeman concedes that it can't change a person's lifetime behaviour in just 10 sessions. But "people need to note that the programme does work, steadily".
Holtmann told the youngsters that they needed to be virtuous to each other and to improve their moral standards. "We need to learn that we can't change the world through anger or violent behaviour, but through being virtuous to each other. You must start having a basic belief that you can do and achieve what you want, without violence, and I believe you have the potential to do exactly that."
Her words were echoed by Ngcobo, who said, "You need to believe that at all times, you can make it in life without applying violence."
He told the learners that their lives were in their hands and they needed to start making a mark now, and leave a legacy of which their families could be proud.
He also shared some anecdotes about his poor childhood, saying he had fought hard - through education - to beat poverty. He Ngcobo said he was happy in the police, "doing what I love most, and that is giving instructions".
However, Ngcobo also had a word of warning: "It is likely that some of you I will encounter along the streets doing wrong things. Please avoid that."
Confidence
In his keynote address, Malatsi noted that he had confidence in the programme, which he believed had equipped the pupils with indispensable life skills that they could uphold into the future.
He was optimistic that the programme had had a positive effect on the lives of participants. "It is now time to fight the scourge of crime in young people, and instil in them proper programmes that will have a positive impact in their future."
One of the tenets of Khulisa was that, given the appropriate tools and the opportunity, young people could make a significant contribution to South Africa's growing economy and social development, Schoeman said.
Barnato Park High School is in Berea, a beacon in the crime and drug ridden streets of the suburb and its neighbour, Hillbrow. Learners are vulnerable to any wrong doing, on a daily basis.
Johannes said that despite this crime ridden backdrop, he and his peers were geared to start living a positive life. And Schoeman recommended that support systems be established in city schools, to help learners cope with such situations.
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