
In the pipeline
Over the last 2 months we have been scouring the country to find a site to test the Amani model. From the Northern Cape to KZN, we’ve got to meet some pretty amazing people and organizations. We hope to make an announcement relatively soon, so watch this space! In this addition of our newsletter our Director of Product ventured out to the Northern Cape and began investigating whether a Just Transition is actually just or if our current approach as a country is simply designed to keep the poor people poor but poor with green energy! She also caught up with the fantastic Team at the Bophelo Child and Youth Centre in Kimberley, to get a first-hand account of what’s happening on the ground. Have a read through her reflections from the visit. In our search for a prototype site, we do come across some pretty inspiring people. We’ve had the pleasure of connecting with two inspiring South African women. Professor Tanusha Raniga and Dr Maud Mthembu. Take a look at the great work they have done in KZN. Check out our new what's inspiring us a feature, this month Paskaliah our Director of Performance and Quality is reading Stay with Me, see why it inspires her.
The Myth of Progressive Companies

The Far-reaching Consequences of a Pandemic- Helping our Children Cope

Most social workers acknowledge that there are limited child-friendly tools appropriate to enhance education and to strengthen children’s psychological health. The Team have witnessed that children do experience fear, frustration, and anxiety due to the high mortality rate and the health and safety risks of COVID-19. Providing information and prioritizing communication with children about COVID-19 is an essential component of any universal, social work and community-led response to the pandemic. To respond to the needs of the children during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020, the Team wrote a children’s storybook titled ‘Uhambo lwami Ngesikhathi sekhovithi’. The book covered three themes: information about COVID-19, child-friendly information about death and hope. The book was a collaborative effort with local non- overnmental organizations offering psycho-social support services to children in rural areas from KwaZulu-Natal. Although the book is written in IsiZulu and was intended for IsiZulu-speaking children, it received massive national media coverage. As a result, it became the first IsiZulu book in the country written for children about COVID-19! Approximately 3500 copies have been distributed for free to children from low-socio- economic backgrounds. The book received an overwhelmingly positive response from parents, educators, children, social work academics and practitioners. NGOs, and daycare centers use the book as a tool to help children talk about the experiences of COVID-19.I'm an image The Team went a bit further and developed an animated children’s movie. The movie serves as an innovative intervention and child-friendly approach to educate children about the COVID-19 pandemic and to give children the opportunity to share their experiences of living in the era of COVID-19. The animated short movie will be released in 11 South African languages and is likely to further enhance children's educational and psychosocial needs! You can watch the video here and if you would like to support the work and find out more about the book, drop us an email (info@amani.africa) and we will connect you with the Team.

