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The Abraham Kriel Child and Youth Care Centre has
committed itself to the following new projects:
Memory box project
When children are admitted to the centre, they
often have very few photos or memorabilia (or
even none at all) to remind them of their
families. This means that precious memories of
their childhood and family life may be lost. All
that most children have to take with them when
they leave the centre is an envelope containing
certificates, medals and documents. These items
fall sadly short as memorabilia of their
childhoods.
The Memory Box Project gives the children the
opportunity to preserve the precious memories of
their childhoods, as well as the emotions that
are attached to those memories, in a creative
way. This provides a means to demonstrate to the
children how their backgrounds affect their
present behavior. It also allows the children to
process the trauma that they have experienced;
while giving them the chance to “store” happy
memories in a fixed and permanent form, making
it easier to look back on happy times.
Case Study
Touching evidence for the value of this project
was seen when a seventeen-year-old girl went
through her photos with the social worker. This
young lady has been a resident at the centre
since she was 10 years old, and although she
frequently visits her maternal grandparents and
holiday-friends, she has only sporadic contact
with her biological father. While going through
the photos, she discussed her “holiday story”
with the social worker. One photo in particular
was very special to her: a photo of her and her
father together. She said she would like to
choose this photo as one of her top ten because
“This is the FIRST photograph that I have of me
and my father together.” This is exactly what we
were aiming to achieve with this project – to
capture special moments which would otherwise
have been lost forever. It is also clear that
this girl has an aptitude for photography, and
chooses interesting subjects for her photos. She
has already won a camera for herself for her
beautiful photos – and wouldn’t it be wonderful
if this camera turned out to the first in a
successful career in photography?
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The Toy Project
The centre has been striving for years
to give the children everything they
would have had (or even more), had they
grown up in a normal family home. The
children at the centre have become
accustomed to having second-hand things,
and this often makes them feel
inadequate compared to their friends at
school. For this reason, the centre
decided to begin the Toy Project during
2011.
The project endeavors to provide the
children with the opportunity to make
decisions about what they really want.
The project is not only very enjoyable
for the children, it teaches them to be
responsible and to take care of
possessions. If a child takes good care
of his or her item/toy for a few months,
he or she is given another opportunity
to choose another item of higher value.
The project also gives a useful
therapeutic insight into the children.
The action of choosing an item gives a
clear picture of the child’s interests,
feelings and thoughts. It gives each
child the opportunity to be unique, and
allows the personnel to learn more about
the child and form a personal assessment
of him or her.
Case Study
One little girl’s choice really stood
out. Rina van Staden is an
eight-year-old girl who, for seven years
of her life, had the misfortune to live
with an alcoholic mother. Rina’s choice
of toy was a pretty set of blocks and
clay. Rina’s motor skills were
underdeveloped because, instead of
playing and reaching her own
developmental milestones, she had been
taking care of her younger siblings.
While Rina thought she had simply chosen
a toy (the first in her life which she
chose herself and which was hers alone),
she was also crafting little figures
with her blocks and clay with her hands.
By doing this, she has developed her
fine motor skills to the point where she
is now able to successfully hold her
pencil at school. She loves to play with
her clay outside in the afternoons, and
always takes care to store it away
safely so that nobody can interfere with
it.
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