Honouring the 31 staff members of The Parent Centre who quietly, tirelessly, and often painfully carry the work of ending Gender Based Violence — one family at a time.
Workers’ Day is meant to remind us of the dignity of labour. But some labour is harder to see. It happens in living rooms and on street corners, in clinics and in community halls, in the quiet moment when a father finally admits he needs help, or a terrified teenager decides to speak the truth. This is the labour of The Parent Centre’s staff — and today, we honour it.
For over two decades, The Parent Centre (TPC) has operated at the intersection of family, trauma, and hope, developing parents’ capacity to build safe, warm, non-violent homes for their children. The 31 people who make up our team are not just employees. They are social workers, community workers, advocates, and — more often than they are given credit for — healers.
Voices from the field
We asked a few of our staff to tell us who they are, why they do this work, and what keeps them going. Their answers speak for themselves.
| SHUAIB Fatherhood Coordinator · 18 years at TPC Shuaib has spent 18 years walking alongside fathers — men who often arrive in his programmes hesitant and guarded and leave with something they had long forgotten: the knowledge that they are not alone. “Knowing that this work contributes to stronger families and better outcomes for children keeps me committed,” he says. What he treasures most are the small breakthroughs — an icebreaker that turns into laughter, a man who opens up for the first time, a father who, week by week, becomes more present. “Seeing small changes turn into meaningful impact is very rewarding.” |
| MPUMIE Parent Infant Attachment Counsellor · with TPC since 2006 Mpumie works with mothers from pregnancy until their babies are six months old — a window of time that is among the most vulnerable and formative a family will ever know. Her honesty about what the work gives back to her is striking: “The training that I have from Parent Centre helps me personally as well. It helps me with the unresolved issues too.” In Mpumie’s words is a truth that runs through so many of our staff’s stories — that this work does not just serve families. It shapes the people who do it, asking them to grow alongside those they support. |
| BABALWA Social Auxiliary Worker & Parent Infant Attachment Counsellor · 22 years at TPC Twenty-two years. That is how long Babalwa has been visiting pregnant women in their homes, sitting with them in the privacy and vulnerability of their own spaces, and walking with them through birth and beyond. Her pride in being known and trusted by her community is palpable: “I take pride in receiving a call from a community leader referring a client.” Then there is the story that captures so much of what this work really is. Recently, neighbours came to her door because a woman was giving birth on the street. “It was shocking,” Babalwa says, “but fulfilling to be able to help.” She simply showed up, because that is who she is. |
The cost of caring: what the research tells us
Doing this work takes something from you. SAPPIN — the South African Parenting Programme Implementers Network — is a network of organisations rolling out parenting programmes across South Africa with the shared vision of helping parents create warm and non-violent homes. Their 2025 Wellbeing Research Report, conducted with 209 staff across member organisations, offers a clear-eyed look at the emotional health of people like TPC team. (https://sappin.org.za/research/)
| SAPPIN Wellbeing Research · March 2025 Key findings SAPPIN describes the work as personally taxing and likely to lead to burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Moral Distress. The research confirmed this: staff showed moderate levels of burnout and secondary trauma — higher than student nurses and other NGO professionals, though lower than child protection social workers. Yet alongside this, staff reported high levels of compassion satisfaction — the sense of meaning and fulfilment that comes from truly helping others. The work costs something. It also gives something back. Frontline implementers — staff who work directly with families — experience the most secondary trauma but also the greatest compassion satisfaction. They carry the most, and they feel the most. What protects staff wellbeing? Supportive colleagues, reflective supervision, flexible working, and the experience of feeling their work matters. What harms it? Resource constraints, heavy workloads, witnessing injustice without the power to fix it, and feeling unseen. The message is clear: if we want our staff to care for families, we must care for our staff. |
When the work becomes real: four stories
Behind every programme, every home visit, every session is a real person whose life has changed. And behind each of those lives is a TPC staff member who held the door open. These four cases show what passion, dedication, and care looks like when they meet human pain.
CASE STUDY 01
“Hope is there” — a mother and daughter find a safe space
A 35-year-old divorced mother came to TPC in crisis. Her daughter had attempted suicide — a response, the family came to understand, to years of her father’s absence, her mother’s unavailability, and the shadow of alcohol in the home. The weight of that reality sat heavily on them both.
What TPC offered was something the client had not expected to find: a place where her own pain was allowed to exist. After just her second session, she said:
| “Since the first session I had this feeling of looking forward to coming to my sessions, knowing that this is my safe space. I know that when I come here, I will be emotionally well, even though my issues are still there. Hope is there.” |
Hope is there. Three words that represent everything TPC’s staff labour for.
CASE STUDY 02
A dream of becoming a teacher, held through unimaginable pain
A young mother, referred from a clinic, had been raped. She had dropped out of school because of her pregnancy. She carried shame alongside grief and arrived at TPC not knowing what she wanted — only that she was struggling.
Her counsellor, Debbie, helped her do something that might seem small but was in fact enormous: she helped her set goals. The client dared to say aloud that she wanted to become a teacher. Two months after giving birth, she joined an Anglican Church programme for teenage mothers — finding community, direction, and hope for herself and her child. This is what it means to meet someone where they are and help them see where they could go.
CASE STUDY 03
A father finally feels seen
A father shared his story in one of TPC Fatherhood programme sessions. As a child with ADHD, his behaviour had been misread as naughtiness rather than need. He felt different from everyone else — and so he learned to hide it. As an adult, emotional instability and substance use followed, a way of managing feelings he had never been taught to name.
Before the programme, he had never spoken about any of this — not because he did not want to, but because he had never felt safe enough. In the sessions on emotions, communication, and self-regulation, something shifted. He described feeling “seen” and understood by the group for the first time.
He left the programme with new language, new confidence, and a belief that he could become a more emotionally available father. What changed was not his past — but his understanding of it, and his sense of what was still possible.
CASE STUDY 04
When a home visit saves seven children
This is a story about what happens when a trained, attentive, brave staff member refuses to give up on someone who has learned not to ask for help. Debbie was working with a pregnant teenager placed in foster care. The girl said little at first — fear had taught her silence.
By session seven, she disclosed the truth: she was being abused, and she did not know who the father of her baby was. Then came the crisis: when the foster mother found out the girl was still seeing Debbie, she threw both mother and newborn out onto the street.
Debbie acted immediately. She reported to her supervisor. The manager was brought in. The Department of Social Development was notified. During a home visit, all seven children in the foster home were removed from the foster mother’s care.
Seven children. Because Debbie came back, week after week, and earned the trust of one frightened girl.
| “Without the programme, this situation would likely have gone unnoticed.” — Case note, TPC Parent Infant Attachment Programme |
These cases are not exceptions. They are the everyday reality of what TPC staff encounter — and what they do about it. They notice. They act. They come back. They hold hope on behalf of people who have run out of their own.
Labour of love — and of loss.
On Workers’ Day, we celebrate the right to work with dignity, fairness, and care. At The Parent Centre, we are also reminded of the particular kind of work that asks more than a job description can capture. Our staff carry other people’s trauma home with them. They give of themselves — consistently, generously, often quietly.
The SAPPIN research is right: this work is costly. And it is also, as every testimonial and case study above makes clear, deeply meaningful. Our staff do not do this for recognition. But on this Workers Day, they deserve it.
To Shuaib, Mpumie, Babalwa, Debbie, and each of the 31 people who make TPC what it is: we see you. We are grateful. And we remain committed to supporting your wellbeing as fiercely as you support the families who walk through our doors.
— The Parent Centre, 1 May 2026
