Physical Health South Africa Project #3498

Topsy Foundation NPC

by Topsy Foundation

Project Report | Jun 25, 2019
Topsy Provides Seeds for Life

By Sarah du Toit | Development Manager

Paul working on his farm

Topsy partners with communities in and around the crossroads of the Mpumalanga, Free State and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. This area, often referred to as a forgotten part of the country, due to its scant infrastructure and lack of large-scale industry, is home to several large rural communities.

As part of the support to orphaned and vulnerable children and families in Mpumalanga, we offer food security and nutritional support in the form of vegetable gardens.

The families participating in the project are required to develop and maintain their own vegetable gardens to supplement their food intake. This participation is key to the buy-in of the project. Topsy’s trained vegetable gardener, supported by fieldworkers, trains and mentors the families and provides ongoing and regular support and training.

The project provides on average each month, 6 880 adult and children with fresh, nutritious vegetables. The food garden projects aims to:

Teach beneficiaries how to establish and maintain home gardens and encourage the production and consumption of vegetables
Teach practical nutrition education in order to promote healthy diets and lifestyles
Providing beneficiaries with a tool for survival at times of food shortages
Familiarise beneficiaries with methods of sustainable production of food that is applicable to their homestead and important for household food security
Promote income-generation opportunities

Paul and his family have been beneficiaries of Topsy’s vegetable gardening programme since 2011. He is one of our favourite success stories.

He started in the programme because he wanted to plant vegetables to sell but did not have the resources to start a garden on his own. Topsy provided him with garden tools, compost, seeds and a hose pipe to continue with his entrepreneurial vision. What started as a small scale vegetable garden is now a fully-fledged farm, with crops, chickens, ducks and rabbits. He sells the produce from his farm to families in his neighbourhood and also supplies to tuckshops within the community. Using his own initiative, he started breeding rabbits as a source of protein for his family. He uses the manure from these rabbits as compost on the vegetable garden, which is one of the reasons he has had such great success with his crops. From selling the crops he grows, he has been able to take care of his children who are now attending tertiary education. His eldest daughter, Ruth, is following in Paul’s footsteps and studying Agriculture Economics at The University of Free State. Topsy helped Ruth secure funding from Rural Education Access Programme (REAP) to pay for her studies.

Paul's flourishing crops

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Mar 12, 2019
Topsy Teaches Protective Behaviours to Prevent Sexual Abuse

By Sarah du Toit | Development Manager

Hayley Walker, Protective Behaviours SA Chair

Child abuse is a national crisis.

In research compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a research programme supported by the World Childhood and Oak Foundations, South Africa scored only 56.1 % for our effectiveness in dealing with child sexual abuse and exploitation.¹

With this in mind, the Topsy Foundation (Topsy)* sent 20 practitioners from 10 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres on a Protective Behaviour (PB) training course. Topsy works with ECD centres through initiatives that support children to unlock their full potential.

Topsy believes it is crucial to develop ECD facilitators who build children’s mental capacity, rather than being “babysitters”. Since the Protective Behaviours course, these ECD practitioners are now equipped with skills to empower children between two and six years old with personal-safety knowledge.

The Protective Behaviours Education training course, facilitated by Hayley Walker, chairperson of Protective Behaviours Southern Africa, takes a proactive, life-skills approach by teaching children to identify unsafe situations and to protect themselves from potential harm.

Dr. Ewa Skowronska, Executive Director at The Topsy Foundation, said, “ECD Practitioners and Topsy staff enjoyed the training so much. Hayley taught us not only the theory but a practical approach to protecting our children. We were surprised by how simple and effective the programme was and we can’t wait to implement it with every child in the communities we partner with.”

The Protective Behaviours course safe guards children’s right to feel safe all the time. Practitioners are taught to recognise a child’s unique concept of safety, teaching them to trust their intuitive feelings and developing strategies for self-protection.

This can heighten their ability to take protective action, trusting their skills, and seeking the support of others when needed. When practitioners gain these skills, they also learn to identify signs and symptoms of sexual abuse.

Practitioners empowered in this way become more likely to advocate for therapeutic programmes, and to lobby for improved laws, policies and practices.²

Practitioners can encourage conversation with children and reiterate the message that there is nothing too awful or too small to discuss with them. They reinforce the themes of Protective Behaviours by:

Reviewing personal networks to ensure they are reliable;
Persisting with necessary action to feel safe again;
Protectively interrupting in unsafe or potentially unsafe situations;
Observing the language of safety with others.

Through the course, practitioners meet other people in their field and start to build support networks. Practitioners are also connected to organisations with useful Protective Behaviour resources.

“Our children are valuable and ECD is vital for them to develop into responsible, upstanding citizens,” concluded Skowronska. “The better prepared the practitioners and children are, the more successful we can be as a nation,”.

*Topsy is a registered, internationally respected South African Non-Profit Company and Public Benefit Organisation on a mission to work with ECD centres through initiatives that support children to unlock their full potential.

References:

ECD Practitioners Engaged in PB Training at Topsy

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Read more about Topsy here

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Dec 11, 2018
Topsy Foundation brings holiday cheer to Grootvlei, South Africa

By Sarah du Toit | Development Manager

Physical Activity at The Topsy Year End Party

On 30 November, The Topsy Foundation helped bring the joy of the festive season to the children of Grootvlei, Mpumalanga, with a day of fun and games, face-painting, trampolines, jumping castles and tasty treats for all.

The children enjoying the festive spirit are learners at the area’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, which provide the safety, good nutrition and intellectual stimulation that will support them on a life of learning and growth.

Few rural communities in South Africa have access to quality ECD facilities, which provide a foundation during the most important part of a child’s development. Topsy was founded in 2000 with the aim of providing relief services to some of South Africa’s most under-resourced rural communities. Since 2014, Topsy has focused on supporting ECD centres around the district of Dipaleseng in Mpumalanga.

Topsy provides quality stimulation and learnings, health check-ups, physical support through food parcels, essential supplies and community vegetable gardens. Psycho-social support comes in the form of individual counselling and advice on accessing grants.

“It was a privilege to celebrate with the children as 2018 draws to a close,” said Sarah du Toit, Development Manager for The Topsy Foundation, NPC. “It has been a successful year and for us and the ECD practitioners, it has been delightful to watch the children grow through the year. We look forward to more joyful memories together in 2019.”

Organisations and individuals can make donations to our Early Childhood Development programme on Global Giving or make contact through our website to get involved in fundraising or volunteer programmes. 100% of all donations go towards helping orphaned and vulnerable children reach their full potential.

Painting Beautiful Faces

Captivated by the Puppet Show

Brightening the Future in Grootvlei

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More information and stories on our website

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