Philani
Children in Cape Town

Philani is a community-based child health and nutrition NGO, Cape Town, based in Khayelitsha, working to identify and improve the lives of malnourished children and their mothers in poverty-ridden informal settlements.

In the 1980s, as Philani started to expand, with mothers becoming involved in the Income Generation Programme, it was recognised that there was a need for a place where Philani’s pre-school children could play and learn in a safe environment. At each Nutrition Centre, a space was made available specifically for the children, and the mothers took it in turns to care for them. Over time mothers who were interested were sent for training in Early Childhood Education. Philani now has eleven Educare classes across our centres serving more than two hundred and forty children between the ages of three and six. Pregnant women in South Africa face the very real combined health risks of HIV/TB, alcohol abuse and poor nutrition. Southern Africa has the highest percentage of persons living with HIV globally, the highest documented rate of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and a high percentage of children born with a low birth weight resulting in life-long negative health outcomes. Together with the Department of Health the Philani Mentor Mother Programme aims to combat these health challenges, with the aim to improve maternal and child morbidity and mortality in the country. With teams in both Western Cape and Eastern Cape, this community-based programme focuses on bringing a supportive and informative primary healthcare intervention into the homes of families. Mentor Mothers guide mothers through the rehabilitation of their underweight children, support pregnant mothers to improve birth outcomes, decrease the number of children born with a low birth weight and assist in the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. The Philani Mentor Mother Model takes a holistic approach to primary health care with the belief that a healthy, well-informed mother is able to care for and bring up a healthy family. The Positive Deviant Model focuses on creating independence and finding solutions within communities. It is built on the philosophy that even in very poor communities some women develop coping mechanisms that enable them to raise healthy children. The idea of using mentors who are based within the community is therefore fundamental to the model. They are women who have, in one way or another, developed coping skills that have benefited their own and their children’s health. The project recruits and trains these women in a range of skills and supports them to work within their community. The Mentor Mother Programme now operates in the Western Cape and in the Eastern Cape’s OR Tambo District. In 2012 the programme was extended to Swaziland and Ethiopia. Given the reality that sustainability is one of the biggest challenges facing many non-governmental organisations, the fact that this programme continues to grow, not only in the Western Cape where it was started, but also in other parts of South Africa and beyond, suggests that it can successfully be scaled up. The key idea of the Mentor Mother Programme is to engage capable women to improve the lives of families, within their own communities, prioritising mothers and children. Recruitment: Philani will only work in a community if it has been invited to do so and if community structures help in the recruitment process. Once the Mentor Mothers are employed, ongoing hands-on training takes place in the field, provided by the coordinators who work alongside them. In addition, there is a training component built into monthly meetings when Mentor Mothers, coordinators and programme managers gather. Home-based, action-orientated health intervention: The programme helps the Mentor Mother to share her coping skills and knowledge with others. A Mentor Mother’s task is not to take on and solve the problems of a family she visits, but rather to help the family find their own solutions by sharing her knowledge and skills.