Social skilling is important in any family and fws children's villages are families which foster a philosophy of working together. While it is important that children build self-reliance, the ability to work effectively as a team and rely on one another is an integral part of living in any developing country but also of living in a large group (yep, a children's village, say!).



fws also recognises that some Kesho Leo kids will lose each other to HIV-AIDS. We believe it’s essential to provide appropriate trauma counselling and support to deal with such experiences.

A weekly group discussion covering topics such as managing emotions, working with our individual strengths and weaknesses, boosting self-esteem and negotiating fairly will be incorporated into the children's learning program. A member of the fws team with qualifications and experience in this area will initiate this "social skills" program and train local teachers to see it through.

Recognising that much of a child's social learning occurs incidentally, fws feels the need to have all those working with Kesho kids – on-site volunteers and local staff members (teachers, carers, cooks, etc) – attend monthly discussions to reaffirm the importance of all they've learnt about early childhood development, behaviour management and positive reinforcement. This ensures these important techniques and codes of conduct remain, at all times, foremost in the minds of those who are caring for Kesho kids.

Finally, given that the population of most developing countries place a great deal of importance on community, fws not only teaches its kids about the issues affecting neighbours, but encourages them to visit elderly or ill neighbours, to partake in local sporting activities and to celebrate national and cultural heritage days with their community.

We also plan to run leadership classes for our neighbours so that they may further address the concerns of their local communities.