What do a room full of businesswomen, a discussion on self-care and four colourful characters named Max, Mr P, Miss Meno and Gogo have in common?
Quite a lot, it turns out.
A discussion on self-care took an unexpected turn when members of the South African Chamber of Business Women’s Cape Town branch met a group of adorable characters named Max, Mr P, Miss Meno and Gogo.
What looked at first like a lesson in creativity soon revealed a future-focused solution aimed at helping children develop one of life’s most important skills: emotional resilience.
Guest speaker Adrie Jurgensen, Director of Communications, Marketing and Partnerships at Badisa, challenged the audience to rethink traditional self-care advice.
“Self-care is not one-size-fits-all,” she explained. “What restores one person may not work for another. The secret is finding the thing that helps you cope, create, connect, grow and thrive.”
That same philosophy lies at the heart of a growing resilience movement within Badisa.
For several years, various Badisa offices have been presenting resilience programmes in primary schools, helping children understand emotions, build coping skills and develop leadership qualities. The programme follows a three-day journey: understanding emotions, building resilience and developing leadership.
Now Badisa is taking that journey even further upstream.
In support of Badisa’s commitment to building stronger individuals, families and communities, the organisation is launching Pause & Peace Corners, where children will begin learning emotional awareness and self-regulation from as young as 18 months old. The initiative will be introduced in daycare centres and children’s homes as part of Badisa’s ongoing commitment to strengthening children, families and communities through early intervention and development programmes.
The colourful characters Max, Mr P, Miss Meno and Gogo may look cute enough to belong in a storybook, but they were created with a serious purpose: helping children understand emotions, build resilience and develop healthy coping skills from an early age.
The corners provide safe spaces where children can identify emotions, practise calming techniques and learn that feelings are normal, manageable and temporary.
The concept may be cute, but the goal is serious.
Research continues to show that emotional literacy, self-regulation and resilience can be developed from an early age and contribute to children’s long-term wellbeing and ability to cope with life’s challenges.
For the businesswomen attending the event, the message was simple: self-care does not start when we become stressed adults.
It starts much earlier.
Sometimes it starts with a small chair, a colourful poster, a furry friend named Max and a child learning that every feeling has a name.
One corner at a time, Badisa hopes to help build a generation of emotionally resilient young South Africans.
