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Mariette is a student at UCT, in her final year
of Social Work honours degree. She asked to be
placed at Childline for her fieldwork.
‘I particularly wanted to work at Childline this
year, to see if I could do this sort of work with
children.
‘It’s been a wonderful year - as students at
Childline Western Cape, we are taught the boundaries,
and then we are treated like members of staff,
always knowing that we have support, someone to
turn to if we are unsure about anything. The staff
at Childline place great trust in us, and the
greatest part of this trust involves the understanding
that we will turn to someone more experienced
if we need help.
‘I believe firmly in the need for some sort of
personal growth course - we do one similar to
the LifeLine course at university. Before you
can offer assistance to someone else, you need
to know your own weaknesses and strengths; you
need to deal with your own issues before you look
at engaging with someone else’s. If you can admit
to your own needs, then you can move forward and
see what you can do for other people. I think
it’s a great strength to admit that you can’t
cope with everything on your own, to be able to
turn to someone else for help.
If help and salvation are to come, they can only
come from the children, for the children are the
makers of men.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian educationist.
‘While we do our fieldwork, we are closely supervised,
both inside the agency, and at university. We
work with our supervisors individually and in
groups, we feedback to them about our progress,
discuss any problems we may be having. All in
all, we see someone every week, either in a group
or individually. We are never placed in an agency
with our friends.
‘While working at Childline, I’ve done group
work (working with a group of 4 children, between
the ages of 10-12). As part of my community work
project, I’ve written a booklet on sexual abuse
- awareness and prevention for primary school
teachers. The book comprises a series of workshops
with teachers and is now being copyrighted.
‘It’s emotional! I see the absolute best in people,
and the absolute worst. I’ve seen children who
have been abused, by family members and family
friends, and I’ve seen the same children working
to recover. There are little children who have
learned how to get on with their lives, in the
face of terrible odds.
‘I’ve discovered my calling - if Childline offered
me a permanent job, I would take it in a flash.’
For further information, contact the Childline
Centre on
+27 (0)21 762 8198
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