Ray of Hope – Uplifting Families ECA
Our Psychosocial Support (PSS) team has had an active fortnight, conducting vital home visits and center-based counseling sessions. From December 5th to 15th, our staff—including Vicky Nyiramugisha and Justine Mpiriirwe—focused heavily on mediating family conflicts, addressing school absenteeism, and ensuring the medical welfare of our beneficiaries.
Here are the highlights:
Health & Hygiene Focus
Physical health is the foundation of mental well-being. This week, our team identified and addressed several health concerns:
- Medical Referrals: We supported a beneficiary suffering from severe ear infections. Our team counseled the family on proper hygiene (using warm salty water) and ensured they saw a doctor for further management.
- Treatment Support: We identified a child struggling with ringworm and arranged for a medication tube to be delivered, alongside counseling the caregiver on maintaining hygiene to prevent recurrence.
Family Mediation & Child Safety
A major focus this week was resolving conflicts within the home environment to ensure children feel safe and respected:
- Conflict Resolution: We successfully mediated a tense situation between a child and a step-parent involving verbal abuse. The caregiver was counseled on positive parenting, promising to stop traumatizing the child and to improve nutrition by providing warm meals.
- Addressing Fear: We investigated a case where a child was soiling the house at night. We discovered the child was afraid to sleep alone or go outside in the dark; we are now working with the family to create a safer, more supportive sleeping arrangement.
- Mending Relationships: We facilitated apologies and dialogue between caregivers and children in cases where disrespect and poor communication had caused rifts in the family.
Youth Guidance & Education
Our team tackled difficult conversations regarding school attendance and adolescent behavior:
- Back to School: We addressed serious cases of inconsistency in school attendance where children were refusing to wake up for school or skipping lessons. Through firm but empathetic counseling, beneficiaries confessed to their challenges and promised to improve their behavior and school performance.
- Behavioral Change: We held sessions with youth displaying rebellious behavior due to external peer or parental influences, securing commitments for better adherence to home rules.
Current Needs & Gaps
While our counseling is effective, some clients face material challenges that require community support. Our field visits revealed the following urgent needs:
- Bedding: One of our beneficiaries is currently sleeping on a mattress with only bedsheets and no blanket. With the nights getting colder, this is a priority need.
- Scholastic Materials: We have identified children who are lacking basic school materials, which is contributing to their reluctance to attend class.
How to Help
- Donate a blanket
- Bring a training. Required training: Adoption Course for Caregivers, Behavior change, Child protection, Communication course for caregivers, Positive Parenting course for caregivers.
- Connect a children’s rescue home and advocate for a space there.
- Add value and motivate our hard-working team with a counseling course
- Support a family with an income generating project to address nutrition and hunger.
- Send a Child to school. $260 required per year for one child.
- Give training on trauma and child protection to our core team.
- Join the Team leader’s promotional podcast, if you have physically visited our work recently.
To support in any of the suggested ways, please email the Team Leader: teamleader@hcaafrica.org
To donate for school fees or any other item financially, please visit our donation page for giving options: Giving Options.