Home-Start is all for family

A total of 12 families from Home-Start Benoni and Daveyton were in attendance.

They were given a platform to socialise and eat, and the children enjoyed playing games and pony and horse rides.

Erica Strydom, director of Home-Start South Africa, said the venue was made available at a lower rate.

Strydom explained that volunteers and donations are always needed, as they receive no funding from government.

The role of the volunteer is to:

•  reassure parents that their problems are not unique;
•  encourage families to enjoy themselves together;
•  build on parents’ own strengths;
•  listen;
•  help out.

Parents come to Home-Start for the following reasons:

•  the illness or disability of a child;
•  Illness of a parent;
•  debt, poor housing and poverty;
•  the demands of a large family or twins;
•  drug or alcohol abuse, or child abuse.

The next volunteers’ training course begins in April.