The Sunday Mail
Island Hospice has developed a successful children’s support programme, based on its many years of bereavement group therapy with children which started in late 1980s.
The programme targets children who have in most cases lost one or both parents.
The approach we use is group work. Children get to work with the specific challenges they may be facing as a result of their grief — these could be difficulties of blended families, emotional pain and loss, changes in living standards and more.
Being in a group creates a safe environment of mutual support. There is a truth behind the phrase safety in numbers when it relates to children. We find in our experience at Island that when children are in groups they feel less isolated and find the courage to speak about their grief. It also builds their support networks in their community for them.
This is important because the purpose of the group is to:
Create a safe environment that allows expression of feeling;
Enable open and honest communication about their losses; and
Build the children’s resilience and coping mechanisms
Work groups for bereaved children were held in 2014 and 533 children attended. These bereaved children’s groups were held during weekends and school holidays so as not to distract children from normal school activities.
We also use individual counselling as a means of helping the children as and when appropriate as all children do not benefit from the group approach.
Island Hospice also provides indirect support to bereaved children through its other projects:
1. Palliative care, where a bereaved child may also be suffering from a life threatening condition and
2. Psychosocial support through training and counselling where a bereaved child may also have to care for an ill parent or relative.
Each year we promote the cause of bereaved children through our Mother’s Day Fund in May and our Fathers Day Picnic in June.
Our Mother’s Day Fund is a call to the public we make online encouraging individuals to give any donation they can to support the work Island does for bereaved children.
As you know, we have been operating in fewer areas since 2000. But the demand for our services is still on the rise. We do as much as we can, but we are often stretched and getting more public support will help us to meet the need.
We are inviting the public to get onto our website and donate 5 dollars or more through Paynow on our website.
We would also like to invite any members of the public who have experienced the loss of a mother to post on our Facebook Page a memory message to their mothers to celebrate this fund and what it will mean to the many young children out there facing the same loss.
We have donation boxes at various places all over the city as well as at our offices on 6 Natal Road, Belgravia, Harare.
