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Archive -Seychelles

Mothers and daughters bridge the gap in their relationship |09 July 2018

It was in an atmosphere of joy and happiness that a mother and daughter bonding workshop ended on Friday afternoon at the Plaisance secondary school.

The workshop was for a group of mothers whose daughters are manifesting anti-social behaviour at the school and are having difficulties to adapt to learning.

The school’s management organised the reunion to impart relationship and communicating skills with the aim of helping to bridge the gap between the mothers and their daughters, thus helping the school to get rid of anti-social behaviour being manifested by the girls.

It was also a platform to sensitise them on the need to love, trust, communicate and to act responsibly towards each other.

The workshop was facilitated by Rita Esparon, the children’s special needs coordinator at the school, Janet Cedras, teacher from Perseverance secondary school and Jill David, teacher from the School of Dance.

Head teacher Raymonde Lavigne said it was worrying to see the different kinds of anti-social behaviour manifested at the school’s premises, especially by the girls. The situation had prompted the management to come up with the programme to try and change certain bad and unpleasant attitudes being manifested.

“Some of these girls do not live with their mothers or fathers, some are abandoned by their mothers, some mothers do not have time for them, some do not have a relationship with their fathers and so forth and this is why they demonstrate these kinds of behaviour.  I think they lack parental guidance and support and this is why we sort to get their mothers involved so that they could get help to better guide their daughters,” she said, noting that there were some parents who try very hard to guide their daughters positively but face rebellion.

“We want to show that we don’t only take the punitive approach but through other means we can make a difference in the lives of the mothers and their daughters. With our approached interventions with those students when they manifest certain behaviour like, ‘I haven’t seen my father, I don’t know my father’ among other issues and we take note of what they tell us and we try to get parents to come in as well for the benefit of both,” Ms Lavigne added.

There was a tense moment of emotion, accompanied by tears when the mothers and their daughters embraced and hugged each other for a long moment at the start of the workshop as they listened to a song titled ‘My Daughter’s Eye’, which also brought tears to the teachers and facilitators present.

 Later, they watched a film entitled ‘Queen of Katwe’, a true moral based inspiring story depicting the change in the life of a girl from the slums of Uganda, after being introduced to the game of chess and who later became a champion. The film showed strong themes of empathy, humility, integrity, perseverance and teamwork.

After the film show, the mothers and their daughters engaged in lectures through PowerPoint presentations and physically, in fun and games. They also enjoyed breakfast and lunch together. There was a tense but cordial moment when they interacted on a one-to-one basis on emotional matters that created barriers in their relationship, coming deep from the bottom of their hearts.

A mother who had been in a sour relationship with her daughter for the past three years said: “The session was a good initiative as it gave us, mothers, the opportunity to sit down with our child for indepth conversation on things that were affecting our relationship and to understand each other more. It went very well and I will make it my utmost responsibility to initiate the mother-daughter relationship at home,” she added, noting that she hoped her only daughter would change for the better, to be the ideal Seychellois woman in future.

One daughter who described her attitudes at school as not being too bad said, “The workshop has reunited me with my mother and I love her very much even though we did not get along at times. I think we will get along together. I will always stay united with her,” she said.

Following the success of the workshop, the school management has decided to conduct future sessions for both parents with the involvement of boys also.

 

 

 

 

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