It’s the start of another school year and most people already know that local foundation, Telefon pa Hubentud (youth hotline) offers different lectures with different topics to schools in Aruba. For the 2023-2024 school year the team at Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud, which only consists of the director and two social workers, are well prepared to give these lectures to the different schools. EA news has recently contacted Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud to elaborate a bit more about the lecutres that are offered to our community.
This year, Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud will be celebrating 24 years of existence on our small island. A foundation that is not unknown within the local community, Telefon pa Hubentud is an easier way for children and teens to find assistance and guidance during moments in life where they can be experiencing difficulties. Accessibility of communicating for free by calling 131, sending an email or chatting through WhatsApp is of great importance for the wellbeing and growth of the child. Based on information gathered specifically from the Helpline in Holland and Curacao, Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud decided to do things differently. In Aruba, they’ve experimented with including young adults into the group of volunteer mentors. An experiment that resulted successful. From the foundation’s side, depending on the topic of the conversations they have they can offer the following assistance:
– Primary Prevention: prevention of problems by giving support to the caller
– Secondary Prevention: recognition of the threatening problem and support the caller to find solutions
– Third prevention: prevention that the person that calls continues to experience a negative result from an issue. Most of the time this can result in a reference to a more specialized assistance.
Lectures at school
As we know, the team at Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud visit different schools around Aruba and offer presentations and lectures about the work that they do as a foundation but upon requests from the schools they also provide workshops, and work on different projects with topics such as bullying, divorce, sexuality and depending on the needs of each group, they will adjust the information that is provided. We spoke to Kimberly de Cuba, social worker at Telefon pa Hubentud to elaborate more on the topic. Kimberly explained that Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud covers 16 topics and that all these topics can be tailored to each group’s age and interests.
The first project that Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud focused on was the topic Bullying. This topic is constantly requested by schools, and it is a topic that a lot of children and teenagers need guidance with. The interesting thing about this topic is that Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud doesn’t only focus on children and teenagers, but also on parents and teachers. The information they provide can be adapted starting with age 4 and can go all the way to age 24. Kimberly also explained that most of the topics that they give lectures about, are connected to each other in some way, for example the topic of Children’s Rights, Norms and Values, Bullying. The topic of Children’s Rights is generally offered in two forms: there is the lecture part that has a duration of 45-60 minutes, and you have the project part that depends on each project. The project part of this topic can take up to a few months to complete. Another topic that Kimberly covered with us is Norms and Values. During our conversation, Kimberly mentioned that it’s important for schools to know that they will recommend this topic to be included at the beginning of the school year. Some schools decide to make a package out of it and request multiple lectures throughout the school year. In cases like this, Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud has his own recommendations for the end of the school year as well. To help the students build a strong foundation for their school year, Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud recommends the lecture on Norms and Values, this can help them achieve a successful school year. But as mentioned before, it all depends on the group. Some lectures like “Who am I” are recommended to be given at the end of the year in 5th grade or the beginning of 6th grade. This lecture really helps the students reflect on themselves and their peers, how they can affect them and how they can work on that. This lecture gives teachers ample opportunity to help or assist students when they are struggling. By the end of 6th grade Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud recommends the lecture about Peer Pressure. The main reason for giving this lecture by the end of the year is because they are moving on to middle school and this is where most students first experience peer pressure. This lecture gives students the tools to handle the challenges.
Kimberly also explained that a topic that has gotten a lot of attention lately is the topic Cyberworld. This lecture is also a lecture that is given in 6th grade or in middle school because this is the age group that is usually exposed to the Cyberworld. This topic is very general, and they can take it in different directions, depending on the group of teens. They can take the direction of sexting, where they can explain that people send nudes and what are the consequences of this action. But they also receive information on how to use the internet responsibly. The other direction that is popular is the cyberbullying part of it all. Cyberbullying is relatively new in our community, but we are hearing more and more about it.
Another topic that is becoming popular in Aruba is the topic Motivation where the teachers can also get some assistance from Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud to motivate students during the school year. Kimberly also mentioned that another topic that schools have started to request more often now is Communication. This topic has been requested for the parents where schools choose to organize information evenings with lectures on communication. Especially when children start the transition into teens, is where this lecture can be extremely helpful. Involving parents in understanding how their children grow up and help them achieve success. Even though our current situation has changed, Kimberly did mention that during 2020 when children where staying home and getting classes online, they also introduced the topic The new normal. This lecture opened a safe space where children and teens could open up about how they were feeling about being at home all the time.
Looking that the topic of Equality has become more and more popular these last couple of years, we asked Kimberly if there are any lecture on that topic. Kimberly explained that they have a topic that focuses on equality and discrimination. These are topics that they feel like they must focus on because we live in a community that is multicultural but there’s a lot of discrimination still. In Aruba, it’s very common to call the minimarket, ‘the Chinese’, without even realizing that it is a form of discrimination. Calling all teachers and headmasters to contact Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud, make an appointment, make your customized package and support your students to achieve better.
Den bo Bario
During the summer vacation, the team at Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud visited different neighborhoods around the island to offer information, and guidance to parents, children, and teenagers. The goal for this project is to listen directly from the community how it is to live in the neighborhood and what are the challenges they face.
Best Dad Ever
The project Best Dad Ever is a project that started in 2017, when a student had to do her final internship at Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud. As a part of her final internship, this student had to complete a study on the interest from the men to have a roll in the lives of their child(ren). Based on the results of this study, the project Best Dad Ever was born. In 2019 they ran the pilot with 9 participants and quickly noticed that this was too big of a group for this type of course. To elaborate some more, the Best Dad Ever Course has 10 sessions that are split over 2 sessions per week. During these sessions, these men sometimes face trauma that they were unaware of or still haven’t dealt with. They get a chance to deal with these traumas in a safe space and this is also the reason why the groups are kept smaller now. Depending on the topic of the night, Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud will also bring Psychologists or Midwives on board. The next course will start October 3, 2023 and this will be the last course for 2023. There are two spots left, so contact Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud to secure your spot.
Anniversary Month
Next will be celebrating their anniversary on November 20th, this is also the official International Children’s Day. Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud strives to launch or present a new project to the local community. The topic gets chosen based on the conversations, email and chat conversations. Be pending for this year’s project.
For more information, to make an appointment or to plan lectures at school, contact Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud at 588-4011 or send them an email at telhubentud@gmail.com
Fundacion Telefon pa Hubentud is a non-profit organization and depends solely on the donations received by the kind-hearted people in our local community.
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