Woman starts anti-bully drive

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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A Mossel Bay woman has taken it upon herself to conduct an anti-bullying campaign at schools in town.

So far she has visited Diaz and TM Ndanda primary schools and yesterday, Monday 29 July, she was at Isalathiso Primary.

Bonani Mkhize and her husband have a Christian ministry which involves a programme every Saturday at Isalathiso. It involves singing, dance and speaking to children. Mkhize home schools her own pre-teen daughter so she understands the challenges children face with regard to bullying.

Mkhize gets extremely positive reviews from TM Ndanda and Diaz schools. The Mossel Bay Home Ads News approached these schools for comments on Mkhize's programme.

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TM Ndanda principal Lamla Boyama says: "She is giving a good message. Bullying is happening here at the school. Bonani is teaching them about the types of bullying. If ever they are experiencing this, they have been told they must write a note and they post it in a box we have at school. We check the box to see what is happening.

"In assembly we ask them to report bullying to the class teachers, but the children don't always do that. That's why we have the box. We want to act immediately against bullying before the parents come in.

"I told Bonani I want her to come again. Once or twice a month would be good. I want her to come to the Life Skills classes in the intermediate phase, talk to the Life Skills educator and incorporate her teaching into the lesson."

Diaz Primary School educator Leigh Meyer also backed Mkhize, saying: "We have bullying at the school; everywhere you have bullies.

Meyer said Mkhize was using a good platform and it helped to explain about different types of bullying, such as physical and emotional bullying and cyber bullying on cellphones. "It's a good idea to move from school to school. It's fantastic she's making children aware of this," he enthused. He said Mkhize explained to children what the cause of bullying might be and the results of being bullied.

Meyer teaches Afrikaans and has his own registered class, consisting mainly of 13 year olds. He admitted it was a challenging age for children.

Meyer said children badly wanted to belong to a group, but some groups were not a good influence on them.

He said Diaz Primary took part in an anti-bullying programme run by the provincial Department of Education in which there is a yearly competition. Last year Diaz came second in the Garden Route region and St Blaize Primary came first.

Mkhize says: "I am also doing an anti-human trafficking campaign. I did fundraising, then went to high schools to create awareness of that. The problem of bullying is all over the country, especially in primary schools. You hear about it on the news. Sometimes a child is vulnerable to human trafficking because he or she has been bullied."

Although slavery was abolished many years ago, there are more people in slavery now than ever in history and human trafficking takes place in many countries.

Part of the attraction of Mkhize's programme is that she goes to the primary school beforehand and teaches some of the children who are interested, a dance to the theme song of the movie, The greatest showman, starring popular actor Zac Efron.

The children who have learnt the dance, then perform it in front of the school during assembly.

There is a roar of appreciation as the song starts and the children recognise it and the dancing begins. The lyrics of the song speak about being bruised by people's nasty words but not letting them get one down. "We are glorious," the song affirms.

Mkhize says: "I realised more and more the impact of bullying at school. It affects children's self esteem. It becomes difficult for them to be who they really are when they grow up.

"They spend most of their time in school; school is their life. Some bully because they are bullied themselves. Kids who watch the bullying get scared and they start joining in the bullying to protect themselves. I work with young people and can help them.

"The greatest showman is about bullying. This is me is a powerful song. If you have a song with a message, it has an impact on children. You leave something positive behind that they can continue with.

"This is talking about standing up against bullying. They can relate to it. While they are dancing to the song, they express themselves."

Bonani Mkhize is an effective communicator, educators affirm.