Windhoek — The establishment of a Children's Movement will take root in Namibia in all earnestness next year if the enthusiasm of attendees at a recent pilot education and training workshop is anything to go by.

The large number of representatives from most high schools in Windhoek, who attended the education and training workshop at the Jakop Marengo High School in Windhoek, last week have pledged to start fully fledged clubs at schools at the beginning of the academic year in 2010. The two-day workshop was facilitated by Josephine van Aarde, the assistant co-coordinator at the Head Office of the Cape Town Children's Resource Centre.

She told Art Life the Resource Centre organises children into social movements through which they can play a role in making their world a better one. This is achieved through programmes, which the children develop themselves through organised community based groups. According to her these groups play a very important part in creating a sense of belonging among the children.

"They get to know one another to realize they are part of a community. Different cultures are recognised and language barriers are broken down, among others," Van Aarde explained.

According to the local convener of the movement, Ottilie Abrahams, Van Aarde was invited to Namibia because of her many years of experience in the field. Van Aarde, however, made it very clear that she attended the workshop only to guide the learners and teachers and not to prescribe to them.

"I have come to live out one of the provisions of the mission of the Children's Movement in South Africa and that is that we will assist any group to establish a Children's Movement wherever our expertise and experience are needed. I was also here two years ago to assist with setting up the Girlchild Organisation started by Ottilie Abrahams. This organisation was copied by us in South Africa where the Girlchild clubs have been incorporated into the Children's Movement," she said.

"At this workshop I have shared with the attendees what we are doing. I did not teach them. I merely created a space for them to interact with one another and to discuss ideas coming from them. We do it this way because we believe that children are both teachers and learners. They have their own minds to create their own ideas and that is how we facilitate workshops. This is also how the Movement has grown in South Africa," Van Aarde explained.

She is very encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by the Namibian learners.

"Their eagerness was so great, that if they had their way, they would start clubs at their school tomorrow," Van Aarde said.

She did warn that establishing a Movement is a long process, depending on how learners and teachers went about doing it. Learners not only need financial support from the community, but also moral support, especially from school management, churches and the business community, for them to succeed. In addition, they also needed to build good relations with social service providers in the community such as the police, hospitals and clinics because their work as a Children's Movement would entail a wide field of social issues such as rape, sexual abuse and various health matters.

She said that once the Namibian Children's Movement was established it would liaise very closely with its South African counterpart.

"We look forward to working closely with the Namibians. Taking care of children is government's responsibility, but they cannot do it alone. Children need to take the lead because they are the agents for change," Van Aarde said.