Family Futures

[

] 52

dvancing

ocial

ntegration

and

ntergenerational

olidarity

to provide care. As a result, through white paper on families,

the Government has promoted family strengthening strategies

to support these families.

Government also facilitated the balance of work and

family responsibilities and promotes equal parenting care

and responsibilities between fathers and mothers. The South

African Government has made progressive policies such as

maternity leave and family responsibility leave. The intention

of these policies is to encourage family balancing between

work and family responsibilities.

In terms of family support programmes, the Government

has intensified the Early Childhood Development (ECD)

programme to support mothers. ECD is a vital link in the

continuum of services aimed at achieving positive social

and educational outcomes. The growing number of children

accessing ECD services demonstrates our determination to

build human capital by providing opportunities for their

cognitive development and early learning stimulation. ECD,

together with investments in education and health, will

contribute positively towards stemming the tide of the inter-

generational transmission of poverty and increasing demand

for the expansion of the social safety net.

Intergenerational solidarity

Programmes promote interaction, sharing and transfer of

knowledge between youth and the older generations are needed

to contribute towards the regaining of the lost morals, human-

ity and ‘Ubuntu’ which are necessary ingredients for sustainable

and cohesive families and communities. The indigenous socio-

cultural knowledge and practice systems which had promoted,

and continue to promote functionality and the strong sense of

societal values of families are being eroded by these challenges.

Programmes bringing children, youth and older persons together

have proliferated in communities around the country over the past

three decades. These intergenerational programmes are the ‘crea-

tions’ of communitymembers, often human service and education

professionals, who attempt to meet community needs and make

good use of existing community resources for a stronger, more

caring society. Improving school attendance, self-esteem, attitudes

towards ageing and older persons, and reducing substance abuse,

social isolation and troubled behaviour are suggested goals to be

reached through intergenerational programmes.

Intergenerational programmes play an increasingly prominent

role in communities as a strategy to bring people of different

age groups to work together in meeting community needs. Such

strategy is important because of the growth in the proportion of

healthy, knowledgeable and experienced older persons in our

population who can contribute immensely towards the decline

of many social challenges that continue to plague young people,

such as crime, drug abuse or academic difficulties.

Intergenerational programmes in South Africa are mainly

clustered around the following areas:

• senior citizens

• extended families and communal living

• schools

• lifelong learning

• multipurpose centres

• edu-care

• moral regeneration.

Outcomes-based education is the official policy and focus on

the educational process at school level in South Africa. This

system has a strong focus on life skills, which requires that

community members share their experience and skills with

youth in the classroom. In many instances these commu-

nity members include the older people in a community.

Grandparents are encouraged to actively participate in the

classroom to share their history and listen to children reading.

Also playing a role in drawing older people into classrooms is

the fact that class sizes are very big and teachers need assis-

tance in order to function.

Another trend is that of the Government moving increas-

ingly towards providing multipurpose centres, where old

people can receive health care, pension pay-outs, entertain-

ment and so on, but also where they in turn can provide a

service to children and youth.

There is also evidence that young people have been and

are being encouraged to serve the needs of older people on a

voluntary basis. Some of this work happens through schools

and colleges, where activities such as visitation, garden upkeep

or doing errands are arranged, while in other instances they

are community or church-based initiatives. South Africa has

proven an important step to strengthen intergenerational

dialogue through the youth and older persons dialogue that

laid the foundation.

In conclusion, South Africa has laid a solid foundation by

developing the White Paper on Families. This family policy

has created an enabling environment that strengthens families

and promotes family preservation.

Finally, South Africa will be celebrating the twentieth anniver-

sary of the International Year for the Family by hosting a national

family summit. The summit will be anchored by the sub-themes

of confronting family poverty, ensuring work-family balance and

advancing social integration and intergenerational solidarity.

Image: Department of Social Development, South Africa

Intergenerational programmes play an increasingly prominent role in

communities, bringing people of different age groups together to meet

community needs