Social worker gives message of hope

Famsa social worker, Lindokuhle Magagula, has been working as a social worker for the past five years.

Although she is based in the Nelspruit office, she works closely with staff at the Highveld Ridge offices in Secunda.

As the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence finished yesterday (December 10), Magagula is one of the ambassadors that the Ridge Times and Famsa recognised as part of an awareness campaign.

Magagula began as a social auxiliary worker in 2019 where she engaged in conducting support groups in the community.

She also took part in various awareness campaigns that are aimed at strengthening and preserving families within the community.

She specialises in proving therapeutic services to individuals and families, which includes proving psychosocial support to individuals had been who have been victims of gender-based violence.

Part of her job entails conducting individual counselling sessions, marriage counselling sessions for couples who are having challenges in the marriage, marriage preparation for couples who are planning to get married and she also provides parenting guidance session for parents with the aim of helping parents to unlearn unhelpful ways used on children in the past and to teach them new skills to help children grow and develop their full potential.

On the question of how violent the community is, Magagula said society is now more violent than in the past.

“When you watch the news, there is always cases of gender-based violence and that is an indication that GBV is still continuing to take place in our communities,” said Magagula.

Although Magagula has not experienced violence first-hand, because of her profession, she has heard the worst stories of GBV which urged her to search for ways to prevent it and also to provide support for victims.

She thinks the prevention of GBV is a collective effort that needs all individuals in the community to take part.

“In order to work on preventing GBV, the families need to have values that are aimed at promoting the prevention of GBV.

“According to the social learning theory developed by Albert Bandura in the early 1960s, people learn behaviours, norms and values more through their interaction with others than through direct experience alone, therefore, if couples are able to model healthy relationships at home, children can learn that it is possible to live peacefully.

“They would then see good communication that leads to good conflict resolutions skills at home.

“Secondly, there is also a need to engage parents in parenting skills, where they can unlearn certain ways that they are used to when raising their children.

“Bad parenting has an impact on how a child will turn out in future.

“Parents need to be open to new ways of raising their children because times have changed.

“Lastly, it is important that as much as we talk about GBV, we should also take it into consideration that men too are being abused and thus we need to focus on interventions for both sexes.”

Magagula believes that for change to happen, people must be made aware of the laws that addresses GBV and strengthen the laws in the justice system and provide more support to victims.

She wants to encourage survivors with a message of hope and a word of advice and said healing is a process and a journey and therefore it is important to celebrate the small steps made towards healing.

“A ship moving at a slow pace is better than a ship not moving at all.

“You are not a victim, but a survivor.

“If you experienced GBV, it does not define you, as a survivor you have the capacity to overcome life’s adversities and to find peace and happiness.

“With the right support system and resources, it is possible to rebuild your life and emerge stronger than ever before,” concluded Magagula.