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Through Ma’s vir Wellington I had the opportunity to learn to look deeper at children, look at them not just as a child who is naughty or difficult, but as a child who needs our help.

My name is teacher Elvene. I want to tell you about a girl in our class in the Children’s Ministry. Grace* was a bright happy little girl when she came to our program, but the following year when she came to my Grade RR class, something changed in her life. She started to become very shy, she pulled her clothes over her head, hiding her own face.  She also did not play or wanted to partake in activities. Sometimes she didn’t have clean clothes to wear, and her attendance was very poor.

At Ma’s vir Wellington we did a course called: Walk with wounded children. In this course we were taught to look out for any sudden changes in children, this can relate to changes at home, or signs of trauma or abuse. A bright cheerful little girl has changed, and we needed to help her. The fieldworkers and our social worker started to build a relationship with the mother. So many circumstances had changed at home: the mom was pregnant and lost the baby, they lost their home, and had to sleep outside for a long time. During this time, I did the Walk-with-wounded-children play therapy with Grace, and through this I could help her talk about what bothered her and made her sad.

The social worker could help the mom with her home and personal issues. Grace started to become the same little girl we knew. Through Ma’s vir Wellington I had the opportunity to learn to look deeper at children, look at them not just as a child who is naughty or difficult, but a child who needs our help.