Stories of Hope

Early Childhood Development in disadvantaged areas Every year, more than 200 million children under five years old fail to reach their full cognitive and social potential. Most of these children live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. As a result of poor development, many children are likely to under-achieve in Read more…

I’ve been paging through a book written by Craig Higson Smith, called     “Supporting communities affected by violence”. In the chapter regarding work with children, Craig makes the point that because of the challenges  children from disadvantaged poor communities face such as extreme poverty, hunger, malnutrition overcrowding and little supervision, providing Read more…

Each day that we interact with the people we know and don’t know, have you ever stopped to think about what emotional pain this person may be carrying? Probably not, we put up barriers to protect ourselves against other people painful stories, as do the people around us, but its Read more…

Although trauma has been with us throughout history, (war, disaster, violence) the concept of trauma or traumatic stress has only been acknowledged or named as such in the last 150 years or so. According to Friedman, clinical attention only began to focus on the psychological impact of war among veterans Read more…

“The true costs of mental health problems resulting from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan extend far beyond the suffering experienced by Veterans and their family members.  Society pays a price too, in terms of the reduced productivity associated with PTSD and other disorders.  Treatment can restore a Veteran’s functioning Read more…

A call to action In 2007, following media exposure on 702, people responded to the story of “iThemba” (a pseudonym) a four year old girl who had been violently raped by a 26 year old and then re-victimized when she was taken to a provincial hospital in Springs. While she Read more…