Persona Doll Training (PDT) is a non-profit organization/ NGO based in Cape Town and working nationally. We offer training, materials and support to teachers, childcare workers, community carers, trainers and other adults on how to use the Persona Doll approach.

The organisation supports a doll-making workshop, which produces Persona Dolls and provides skills and employment to a rural community group, in Paarl / Mbekweni and the Free State.

Persona Doll Training has worked in preschools and primary schools, with students and teacher trainers in colleges and universities, with counsellors who work with street children, child care workers and with other NGOs. We train and support ECD training organisations to offer PDT as part of their integrated (home and community based) and centre based ECD programmes.

Home visitors, family support workers, nurses and community workers have learned to use the Persona Dolls to help people to deal with living with illness and bereavement, especially in relation to HIV and Aids. HIV and Aids carers, community motivators and home visitors have also used Persona Dolls.

PROGRAMME INFORMATION

Persona Dolls are large life like, 70cm tall, cloth Dolls with their own individual identities, life histories, family and cultural backgrounds, likes and dislikes, fears and abilities. The Dolls are a practical tool to promote inclusion, psychosocial development and emotional literacy for children, and to address discrimination, anti-bias and diversity.

The Persona Doll Approach is an enjoyable and non-threatening one for adults and children. Racism, xenophobia, health issues and attitudes towards HIV and Aids, culture and faith, language, gender; sexuality and homophobia, abuse, disability and inclusion and social class issues are addressed, while promoting positive values, ‘unlearning’ discrimination, emotional literacy and problem solving.

The Persona Doll approach builds on universal and African traditions of story telling which are taken a step further – into interactive discussion and dialogue with a focus on the importance of hearing children’s’ voices. Teachers, childcare workers, social workers, and trainers have a wealth of story telling tradition, which extends naturally into using the Persona Dolls.

Our project’s training methodology is respectful, participatory, non-threatening and ensures that adults engage in personal anti-bias development, awareness raising and receive personal support, as well as actively learning how to use the Persona Dolls as a tool for inclusion, anti-bias and psychosocial development with children and adults. Teachers, childcare workers, care givers; family and community workers use the Dolls.

PDT is a registered non-profit organisation (NPO). We offer training and support, training of trainers, workshops, Dolls, and research into the approach. We have produced a Trainers and Teacher’s Manual with a DVD / video. Our highly experienced trainers operate in most provinces of SA.

Women make Persona Dolls in our rural income generation doll-making projects based in Mbekweni, Paarl in the Western Cape and in the Free State. The Dolls are the power of this approach. They are large, 70cm tall, cloth, life like and they represent all children – boys, girls, some with disabilities, different skin colours and hair types, large, slim, etc. You can order Dolls and materials from our website.

We run a successful training and support programme in partnership with the HIV and AIDS Programme of the Western Cape Education Department. Thus far we have trained 1050 teachers and have reached more than 35,700 children in this programme. We also provide training, often in rural situations, in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape, Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. We have trained lead trainers in many Early Childhood Development (ECD) organisations and work in partnership with organisations like the Early Learning Resource Unit, University of the Western Cape Social Work Department, Lesedi Educare, Hantam Community Trust, and the National Association of Child Care Workers amongst others.

PDT trains education and social work students in universities and colleges.
We network and work with ECD, inclusion, antibias / anti-discrimination, women’s and development organisations, and government departments. We aim to make a difference in adults and children’s attitudes, and to provide psychosocial support where it is really needed.

Operates in: All of South Africa
Established in: September 2003

Non-Profit Organisation Number: 042-277
Public Benefit Organisation Number: 930022097
Section 21 Company Number:
Trust Number:

Contact person: Carol Smith
Phone: 021 788 4365
Fax: 086 617 8062
Email:

Website: www.persona-doll-training.org

Physical address: Kalk Bay, Cape Town
Postal address: P O Box 91, Kalk Bay, 7990