Cape Town NGO hopes its anti-bullying programme will yield good results

CAPE TOWN - With pupils back in the classrooms on Wednesday, a local non-governmental orgainsation is hoping its anti-bullying programme will yield good results.

During the recent school holidays, volunteers from Philisa Abafazi Bethu, worked with children in the Lavender Hill and Steenberg area

The director at the NGO, Lucinda Evans, says they invited children who were bullying others, as well as parents to address the issue head on.  

“And it is part of a mandated GBV [gender-based violence] programme as a women’s centre that looks at the protection of women with their children. We intentionally chose the theme of anti-bullying leading into child protection month, and we approached this from the point of should we not offer to work with bully perpetrators and their parents.”  

Evans says the children responded well and made pledges to bring an end to bullying in their communities.  

“The children wrote a memorandum, and they took it down to Steenberg Police Station, and the children’s memorandum was asking Steenberg Police Station to come and do workshops, and information on bullying, but also to go to the local schools and work with bully perpetrators.”