Nova Main Office
Phone: +27 128077991
IP Tel: +27 877545997Fax: +27 86 538798
Email:
Physical Address13 Beuke Place
The Willows Ext 14
Breakthrough in Energy Efficient Housing...
Nova has developed and tested energy efficient RDP's
Read more
Recent publications by members of the Nova Institute:
Quality of Life in low income households as a measure of social development
Baseline Report: Demonstration of an Improved Top-down Ignition Method in the Emfuleni Municipality
Methodology for reporting conversions to an improved top-down ignition method
Air pollution in dense low-income communities
The impact of diarrhoea in infants on the quality of life of low-income households
The CHICS programme is an innovative way for helping vulnerable children....
Care
Vulnerable members of families in Southern Africa suffer the most under the scourges of poverty, HIV/AIDS, crime and ever so often political instability. It is therefore of cardinal importance to build the inherent capacity of households to care for their vulnerable members amidst these challenges.Nova's Care Programme is developing solutions that would empower households to render quality care. We believe this endeavour is particularly relevant given the huge number of children who are vulnerable and even orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa.
Introduction
The
vision of the Church Household Interface Care and Support (CHICS)
Programme is that all children in South Africa grow
up in healthy households. This means that we would like to see that all
children have the opportunity to receive and attain a proper quality of
life. A proper quality of life has to do with the opportunity
children have
to satisfy universal human needs such as the need for sustenance,
protection, affection, participation, understanding, creativity,
idleness, identity, freedom and transcendence in the context of the
household (cf the development approach developed by Chilean economist
Manfred Max-Neef).
The
strategy of the programme is to utilise
local church facilities to empower low-income households to provide a
good quality of life to the vulnerable children under their protection.
The CHICS programme aims to design, evaluate and implement a package
that
could contribute to the quality of life of children in a manner that is
sustainable, desirable, beneficial, affordable, effective and
replicable.
Currently there are two projects within the CHICS Programme that are
both almost ready to commence with Phase 3 of the Nova Phased
Approach,
that is, the methods have been evaluated on a small scale and are
almost ready to be implemented in a pilot project. Both these projects
fall within our broad strategy
of utilising local church facilities to empower low-income households
to take care of vulnerable children.
- The first project, namely, the CHICS puppet show project, concentrates on the empowerment of children themselves through a comprehensive life skill programme aimed at the improvement of quality of life in the household context
- The second project concentrates on the empowerment of parents and custodians of children in low-income households
Puppet Show Project
The CHICS puppet show project is an investment in the development of children. It advocates social life skills, responsible quality of life choices and respect for creation as means to promote constructive behaviour amongst our children.
Each of the elements in the Nova QOL wheel is used as a theme for a puppet show and a relevant spiritual inspirational message is included in the story.
A small scale evaluation project was established at Stanza Bopape and Phahameng congregations in Mamelodi, South Africa. Through theatre and puppetry social life skills, quality of life tuition and spiritual guidance are provided to children. In this way the puppet show functions as edutainment model for the empowerment of vulnerable children and their families in poor communities.
Our medium term goal is to evaluate, refine and validate the efficiency of the puppet show and once we are confident that it complies with the highest criteria of excellence we intend to commence with a pilot and ultimately full scale implementation.
Parent Empowerment Project
The CHICS parent empowerment project acknowledges that parents and close relatives are the first safety net for vulnerable children. Unfortunately, there are instances where family members and relatives exploit vulnerable children and we believe that such cases are normally best treated by professionals. But generally speaking it is our conviction that the empowerment of parents, relatives and family friends could make the most significant contribution towards the care of vulnerable children.
We therefore endeavour to develop methods for faith based institutions, in particular churches, to support these parents and custodians to care for the vulnerable children in the midst of their households.
Our goal is ultimately to see a CHICS parent empowerment group being established at every crèche and day care centre in low-income areas nationally, particularly at Dutch Reformed and Uniting Reformed Church congregations.
Nova has developed research tools to gain an understanding of the effect of health related absenteeism on industry in collaboration with the Madibeng Centre for Research.
In our experience employees are not only affected by their own health problems, but also by those of their family and community members. We therefore take a holistic approach towards absenteeism by identifying strategies that will help maintain and/or improve the well-being of employees and of the communities where these employees reside.
Nova can assist companies in the development of a holistic approach to absenteeism.
Nova partners with the Functional Household Programme (FHP) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The Health status of Communities project was executed by the FHP to:
-
Provide insight into the health status of 24 communities surrounding Lonmin Platinum Limpopo namely:
Ledwaba, Matome, Mathibela, Mogoto, Ga-Rakgoatha, Makweng, Ga-Mmamogwasa, Madishaditoro, Ga-Madisaleolo, Mopatjakeng, Magatle, Mmakotse, Lebowakgomo, Hwelereng, Motserereng, Lenting, Tooseng, Thamagane, Dithabaneng, Makurung, Mashite and Mphahlele
-
To make recommendations for interventions aimed at improving the health status of these communities
Nova can be contracted to analyse the health status of your community.
Managed health care aims to reduce the cost of the provision of health benefits to clients while simultaneously improving the quality of care rendered. This is done through a variety of mechanisms such as economic incentives for physicians and patients to select more cost effective forms of care.
In June 2005 a managed health care organisation named Enablemed, commissioned the FHP to investigate the contentment of their clients, who derive from different low-income sectors of society in South Africa.
The contentment investigation showed that there was a gap between certain intentions of Enablemed as managed health care provider and the perceptions and responses of many of their clients living in low-income households. It brought to the fore that the managed health care principle of cutting costs by requesting households to adhere to one registered doctor is a source of discontentment amongst many of Enablemed’s clients.
It
was further found that numerous misconceptions prevail amongst
clients when it comes to the comprehension of their medical aid
benefits. It became evident that Enablemed was facing a significant
challenge when it comes to the communication and administration of
client benefits in the multi-cultural low-income South African
context within which the organisation operates. This information has
made
it possible for Enablemed to take steps to address the problems, making
the clients more satisfied and improving the effectiveness of the
company.
We would like to acknowledge the following collaborators to the projects under Care:
- Northern Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church (Caring Together Initiative)
- Christian Social Council
- Congregations of the Witness Forum of Mamelodi / Lusaka (especially Lux Mundi and Mamelodi/Phahameng)
- Enablemed
- Centre for Development and Ethics
- Lonmin
- Functional Household Programme