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Approximately 26 of BCC’s smartest and most influential students are set to champion a ground-breaking residence-based peer mentorship programme aimed at ultimately improving the university’s throughput rate via peer-driven academic and social interventions.
An intensive three-day workshop recently held at the Esplanade residence in East London under the auspices of the Makhuza peer-mentorship programme, a first-ever intervention of its kind, signalled the official commencement of the programme as the chosen mentors underwent vigorous training in a bid to capacitate and upskill them ahead of their mammoth task.
The word Makhuza is of Ugandan origins and means or refers to community members who are responsible for and guiding children without present father figures.
“The Makuza peer-mentorship programme is coordinated by the residence unit in collaboration with the counselling unit, as well as the Directorate for Learning and Teaching. The overwhelming majority of the students we’ve chosen are those that are excelling in their academics, as well as a small group of students who’re influential within the student body so that they can carry our message as far wide as possible,” said BCC senior student psychologist Pumla Mahali.
Most critical in the peer-mentorship workshop was the clear outlining of the students’ roles and responsibilities as residence mentors; enhancing their communication skills; qualities of an efficient mentor; the stages of mentoring; the benefits of the programme to the mentor and the mentee; what mentoring is and what it’s not; the ethics and code of conduct of a mentor; the sacredness of confidentiality; referral skills; the importance of goal-setting; the contractual agreement between a mentor and a mentee and the stages of change.
Mahali said the aforementioned skills will be used primarily to infiltrate, analyse, understand and positively influence the thought processes and spaces wherein students operate in relation to social issues such as, but not limited to, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual abuse, peer pressure, relationships, psychological issues, home life and the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The function of the peer mentors will be invaluable in that they will reach spaces and corners that we can’t get to as professionals and they will be the face point of contact to mentees who’re struggling with their academics due to various psychosocial issues that impact negatively on their studies. It’s therefore imperative that we train these mentors well so that they do their jobs effectively, compassionately and professionally so we positively impact the academic performance of these students,” she said.
Programme coordinator and residence officer, a former BCC SRC premier, Thulani Landu, said one of the key outcomes of the programme was to change the narrative about students as that of being combative to a progressive posture that seeks to assist, not only the students, but the university as an entirety.
Landu was also quick to point out that the programme was a collaborative effort between the student affairs departments’ residence and counselling units, as well as the Directorate for Learning and Teaching (DLT).
“I must stress that these mentors will be based at the residences and with the help of DLT, who will be identifying these struggling students, we will be piloting this programme to some of our residences taking into cognisance the fact that we have in the region of 80 residences at BCC, and only 26 mentors. This is challenge we have to tackle and look at how we can be creative in sourcing more funding so that we bring more mentors on board to cover this huge spread,” he said.
By Thando Cezula
