Khululeka’s services include individual grief support to at risk children and various training and mentoring programmes

Children and Family Grief Support

Experienced Khululeka staff provide individual grief counselling, family interventions, assessments and referrals. This service is available to children, teens and their families residing in the greater Cape Town metro.

Training & Mentoring

Khululeka facilitates 2 day, 3 day and 4 day workshops on how to recognise and appropriately support bereaved and grieving children and adolescents. The workshops are specifically designed for those working in the child sector, including social workers and teachers, child and youth care workers, and Community Based Organisation volunteers.

The training includes:

  • theories and tools designed to help adults reflect on their own grief histories and processes;
  • detailed information regarding each developmental stage and related concept of death, grief response and appropriate way to provide support;
  • advice about how to support bereaved children including the practicalities of running grief and loss support groups;
  • a range of simple physical therapies, techniques and tools that can be used to facilitate conversations about grief and loss, and de-stress and emotionally contain children and adults.

The training includes an element of mentoring and ongoing support for those actively implementing support groups.

Abangane 8 day training

For more information on the 8 day Abangane training please see click here.

Quotes from social workers and child and youth care workers who completed the Khululeka grief support training:
[I will change the way I work with children in future and as a result of this workshop] by loving them equally and tell them I am sorry [when I made a mistake] and by being on the same level with them and not shout at them when I am talking to them.
[The facilitator] managed to connect and interact well within the group. She dealt with individual stressors perfectly. She showed respect at all times and her sense of humour contributed to the natural flow in the group.
I will try to give children in my organization space to talk and also not assume that I know what they are thinking.
[The workshop] helped me to talk about my losses, and not to be ashamed of my story and where I come from.
I would recommend that all social workers and also child care workers also attend this training.
It was very helpful to work through my own grief. I feel that I have been guided to continue working on my own grief.

Hero Story

Liso* had a birthday party one Saturday, celebrating his fifth birthday. On a Sunday morning when they were returning home after dropping grandmother at her house, Liso and his cousin were knocked over by a car that was doing drag racing on their street … [Read more]

These are the social workers taking on the difficult task of facilitating grief support groups for the parents of children who had tragically died. Khululeka provided training and mentoring for this group of six professionals who are based in the areas hardest hit by gangsterism.