Parcitipant blog: My Facilitator of the Month by Eliam

“Thuthula shares her journey at Project playground (PPG) after a long dance session with Eliam and Luvuyo, Eliam’s Study mate from TSiBA (Tertiary School in Business Administration).”

“My name is Thuthula Fuku. I was born and raised at Langa Township. I’m a Great Corner facilitator in one of the sub-projects at Project Playground (PPG) called girl pride. I started working at PPG in April 2013 as a dance facilitator. Basically, I work with Sofia in a dance class and AB girl as a vocal coach, we’ve 92 kids in total of which 30 of them are the under 18ns and 62 of them are the under 13ns.

In Great Corner, girl pride is a new class that deals with teenagers from the Age of 14 years upwards. The aim of this class is to install discipline in these young girls through dance and build their confidence. We try to guide these kids through this stage as they turn to be inquisitive about many things. In this class we discuss issues that we face as young girls in our communities, as most would agree that our communities especially Langa is faced with the challenge of teenage pregnancy, drugs abuse and crime. As a young girl there is peer pressure that you generally face either at school or from your friends. This class helps us to understand challenges that teenage girls face, be close with these kids so that we can be able to guide them towards the right direction.

The role that I play with these kids is that of a bigger sister, I also have a son who’s doing grade 2. His name is Thabile and I understand how difficult it is for a mother to discuss other things with their daughters and sons or for a little girl/boy to share some things with their parents.

The impact Project Playground has on the on the South Africa youth
I really enjoy being part of the Project Playground team; it provides a platform for me to get to know the challenges that are being faced by my communities. I get to motivate, encourage and share my experience with young girls, as I’m a young single adult/older youth. I relate with my colleagues as we are more or less of the same age. Everyone here at work is friendly and nice, in fact they’re welcoming. PPG staff has the same goal and vision: which is to better the future of these young kids.

Project playground is making a huge difference in Langa and other parts of Cape Town; I mean it accommodates about 40% to 50% population of the youngsters of Langa, and I have witnessed how it has changed the lives of the youth. There are many organisations that deal with kids but only a few that has an intimate relationship with their kids as PPG. We focus on individual children and give them the attention they seek. I believe that with the pace that we have and our current spirit, PPG will change the whole Langa, in few years from now.

An advice, I could offer to people working with kids
To the people that are working with kids my massage is that they should understand that kids are different. They should try to be more involved in their lives; a person must try to relate with them by creating a friend to sister type of a relationship. You must allow them to trust you that they are not scared to talk about things like boyfriends or sex.

My short childhood story
Growing up as a child, I didn’t have a role model or someone whom I could call a role model except my mom. I was very active in sports; hooky, cricket and dancing. I remember my mom would get angry at me because it was too costly to go to camps and to matches.  After while being part of these activities I started to earn an income through the activities because I got paid and I really loved dancing so much, hence I did not it see as a job. Not that I was doing it for money but I was getting money after every performs we did. My mom always motivated and supported me towards my dreams, she believed in me more than anyone after noticing that my passion lies in dancing.

Message to the 2014 matriculates
For those that are writing matric, it is important that they do not follow other people’s dreams. They mustn’t allow other people or their peers to lead them astray; they must study hard to pass. At the exam room they must give it their best short. If it happens that others do not make it, I kindly ask them to accept the situation and not take it too hard, it’s not the end of the world. There always comes a test in our life, when we have to prove our self as a good child, a friend, a brother or sister, a lover and above all a good person. We pass, we fail but the kind of person we are varies. Failing is just meaning that it was not our day; we did something that we need to improve next time. We are all winners at the end of day no matter how many times we fall. True winners are people who stand up the second time and start going forward again not someone who gives up after falling.”