Parenting without violence common approach has provided opportunities to strengthen mothers, fathers, caregivers and the wellbeing of children
Prior to the pandemic, surveys showed that 76 percent of children globally were experiencing physical and humiliating punishment at home. COVID-19 is magnifying these risks, placing children and their caregivers under much more pressure. In developing countries like Ethiopia more than 36% of children live under poverty, and experience different forms of violence within their home by their parents, guardians, and non-parents.
Parenting in Africa Network (PAN) conducted A Multi-Country Research on Positive Discipline and Skillful Parenting in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda in 2015.
According to this research, 50% of respondents indicated that physical punishment was passed down through generations while 35% used it due to religious teachings. More so, respondents perceived parents, older siblings, religious leaders, and community members as having the responsibility of disciplining children. Prevalence of behavior correction methods such as: shouting and yelling had the highest score at 70%, threatening to beat was at 68%, use of physical punishment at 48%, and walking out on the child at 32%. The research findings demonstrate the importance of continuous capacity building of parent/caregivers, communities, religious and educational institutions, local organizations, and governments as important in strengthening families for the wellbeing of children.
SOS Children Villages Ethiopia is implementing the JOFA project in Babile and Chinakison districts where the findings of the needs assessment of child protection issues reiterated higher need for parenting skill intervention. Of the total 96 participants, more than a half of children experienced physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by their guardians.
More than a half of children experienced physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by their guardians.
Most of the children that experienced harsh discipline measure are from Babile internally displaced community, (26%) and Chinaksen host community (18%), figures that are in line with what parents and guardians reported in a result monitoring study conducted in 2021.
Parents and guardians in both districts have little understanding about the problems and worries of their children. These issues include comforting when distressed, respect child’s sense of freedom, support and encourage the child, understand the child, give attention and listen to the child, open communication, show affection, spend time with the child, and provision of advice and guidance
Based on the assessment result, only 42.7% of the participant children reported that their parents/guardians understood their problems and worries most of the time or always though there is an improvement from the baseline figure.
Furthermore, only 21.9% of the parents can manage stress, only 14.6% are capable of managing challenging child behavior, and only 2.1% of the parent reported increased ability to manage stress and provide protective and nurturing environments for their children. These are clear-cut indications that necessitate parenting skill intervention in protection action of JOFA project.
Positive parenting
Parenting interventions form a key evidence-based strategy for violence prevention in two respects: by reducing violence towards children and by preventing the early development of violent and antisocial behavior in children. Violence prevention is increasingly recognized as a key public health issue in low- and middle-income countries (Mercy et al. 2008; WHO 2020).
SOS Children Villages Ethiopia through the JOFA project is implementing face-to-face structured, group-based positive parenting (Parenting without Violence) program for 3 to 6 months with parents and caregivers.
The parenting program is being delivered in 12 weekly sessions to parents of children between 0 and 6 years old by trained core-team facilitators. The session discussion topics include family relations and communication, basic parenting knowledge and skills, parental self-care and self-esteem, child protection, and family budgeting.
The JOFA project works with newly identified groups and re-engaged groups turned into parent peer groups. Currently and since January 2022, there are 490 children in life-skills/socio-emotional learning enrolled and actively participating into parent peer groups and children peer groups respectively in both implementation districts of Babile and Chinakison.
Furthermore, SOS Children Villages Ethiopia has mainstreamed parents and children with disability into its program and is strengthening the social support networks for the families living with disability.
In implementing the program, beside parents, caregivers and children, we are working with many partners from Women and Social Affairs, Health, Education, and other Early Childhood Development areas existing in the implementation districts. The most important stakeholder for the JOFA project in this aspect are the parents and caregivers who are in the process of being empowered with skills to provide the interventions for child wellbeing.
The training sessions have been developed with the support and guidance of Save the Children International through the training manual on Positive Parenting in Humanitarian Intervention in Ethiopian context. In the same project, teachers have been targeted with Positive Discipline training, to encourage use of alternative methods of correcting behavior, rather than caning.
Among the common technical approaches used for improving protection in resilient families, communities and institutions is Parenting Without Violence skills’ training for parents and caregivers.
JOFA has a strong commitment to ensuring family stability through equipping parents and guardians with winning methods and techniques in positive parenting. We believe in using methods that are fully compatible with the community culture or reviving the community parenting norms. The focus of the capacity building for families is addressing family breakdown, hence building strong parents/caregivers that will effectively raise their children to their fullest potential.
Parenting without violence training is yielding positive results in family relationships. Parents and caregivers, who have undergone the training with JOFA project, report high levels of improvement in their relations with children. They also report that their own children are now friendlier.
Impact
“We never thought that dialogue with children would yield such positive results in family relationship,” said one parent, Meftuha, a mother of nine children, from Babile district in a focus group discussion. She also said that her husband asked what caused her avoiding violently punishing their children. She replied that she learnt and realized from the parenting without violence training that corporally punishing is not a helpful means of disciplining children.
As a way of enhancing learning and empowering parents to change attitudes and practices on parenting, the trained parents are given take-home assignments, such as getting to know the best friends of their children and understanding their children’s hobbies and interests and setting future goals.
Parenting without violence helps families including children catch-up dreams and self-care plans
Fathers, mothers, or caregivers are among the most important people in a child’s life. As part of the sessions, parents and caregivers are provided with the necessary skills on how to offer love, teach and raise their child in very positive ways. As learnt from the participants in the learning activities, most parents and caregivers want to be responsible, engaged and loving to their children as they are the most important people in a child’s life.
Mahamud, 57, a father of five children from Shek-Husein village is among the 25 parents and caregivers who have undergone the parenting without violence skill from his village based on his prior poor parenting skill. Mahamud said:
“My family and children do not have a family dream and self-care plans experience before my enrolment in the training, thanks for the SOS CVE JOFA project for facilitating this vital training, now I have set up family dialogue time, family-care plan and catch-up individual and family dream”
Mahamud
The children who have undergone the parenting without violence session have also reported improvement in self-esteem, love and happiness in their family. Mahamud’s son, the above-mentioned father, Abdi, who is enrolled in the program for the children’s part said that;
“Now I am having a lovely family, and I am aspiring to be a Medical Doctor in the future and striving to work hard to achieve my own and family goals”.
Abdi
Parents with children with disabilities are being part of the parenting training in both Chinakison and Babile districts. The situation analysis of children with disabilities is an integral part of protecting children from violence and promoting social inclusion of children with disabilities in the JOFA project implementation villages. Children with different types of disability are taking part in socio-emotional learning training being undertaken with parents. Twenty groups are already formed and engaged in training on socio-emotional learning with the help of a trained facilitator from the schools in each village. Coping with the emotional and physical demands of caring for an individual with a disability is a great challenge in these communities’ socio-economic setup.
Moymuna, is a mother of a boy with poor cognitive development, named Nure, from Shek-Husen village. Nure is a 15 year old who was denied going to school and suffering a lot from stereotypes including isolation from his teammates because of his disability. Moymuna is one of the members in-group based positive parenting training program in the village, who reported that the as a result of the training, her family is developing helping behaviors toward Nure and overcoming the cultural stereotype the family members and the boy is suffering.
PWV training is halting the different forms of violence and social stipulations against children and parents with children with disability.
Furthermore, because of the training, Moymuna has realized that her boy’s condition can be changed, and sent him to a school in a village where he has joint the group of children enrolled in socio-emotional learning. Nure’s mother, the school based parenting skill facilitators and JOFA project staff have witnessed a significant improvement in Nure’s behavior, socialization and cognition. The school facilitators and all school community are now paving helping environment for Nure and the like children with a disability problem, and they hope and believe Nure will be enrolled in regular grade 1 in the upcoming school year.
The inclusion of the children with disabilities like poor mental cognition and parents with children with disabilities is helping a lot in halting the different forms of violence and social stipulations
JOFA is strongly implementing the Parenting Without Violence approach and following-up its effectiveness. The approach is seen very helpful in provision of opportunities for fathers, mothers, and other caregivers to develop strategies to manage stress and identify ways to care for themselves. Feedbacks from the trainees show that enhancing the support of fathers, mothers, and caregivers to transition from relationships with their children, and each other, that are based on power and control, to relationships based on cooperation, communication, listening and mutual respect.
SOS CVE will continue the implementation of the approach in strengthened manner and reach more mothers, fathers, other caregivers, religious leaders, local leaders, and school teachers to develop the understanding of child rights, child development, positive parenting, gender and non-discrimination, protection risks for children, and where and how to seek help.
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This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union.
Its contents are the This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union.
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