One Man Can

Bra Joe (participant), Nodumo (Social worker) , Nomawonga (Auxiliary social worker)

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​Nodumo Ndengezi is the social worker at Beautiful Gate and has worked with many women in projects at Beautiful Gate and in the Isibindi project which started in February this year she has only one male in the project.  Meet Bra Joe (Jonginkosi Nombanga) who is one of the participants.

Bra Joe is in his 40's and he is the only man participating in the Isibindi project at Beautiful Gate. Bra Joe is a proud father, children from the community call him Bra Joe. He has a children's soccer team where boys and girls play and he says the children are so dedicated to soccer that they even go to his house to fetch him for practice. Bra Joe started attending the Isibindi project with no knowledge he was the only man in the project, and when he found out, he had his doubts! He attended the project introduction and saw that the women in the project didn't treat him differently because he is a man. They are all trainees in the project together.

The trainees in the Isibindi project also recently received Persona Doll training. Persona Dolls are a creative, interactive tool used around the world in anti-bias work with children and adults. The Persona Doll approach offers a practical and unthreatening way to ‘unlearn’ prejudice, challenge discrimination and develop psycho-social skills. Persona Dolls  offers diversity training and materials on how to use Persona Dolls in anti-bias inclusion work, and a range of hand-made Persona Dolls. and everyone including Bra Joe were a bit skeptical at first when  they saw the dolls but as the day went by everyone started seeing the purpose of the Persona Dolls, even Bra Joe had presentation time where he had to demonstrate the use of the persona doll during class. We are encouraged and inspired by Bra Joe!

Phelisa Somciza-Persona Doll Trainer

Isibindi is a partnership between Beautiful Gate, the Department of Social Development and NACCW. Through the model, trained child and youth care workers are deployed within identified households to provide much needed support services to orphaned and vulnerable children.  These may include assisting them to get ready for school in the morning, meal preparations, assistance with homework, registration for social grants and psycho-social support, to name a few.