PIP's Core Program is to train all practitioners and frontline workers who work with vulnerable children and their families to upgrade their expertise in psychosocial guidance with a systemic-contextual approach supported by a tool called puppets. This tool is used as an aid in child assessment, and enables the child to picture and tell his/her true life story in the shortest time possible by revealing how life events have affected the child and their immediate surroundings.

The aim of the training is for the practitioner to get a better understanding of, and insight into, the relationships, (dys) functional communication patterns, interactions and dynamics of the diverse systems the child belongs to. This will help the practitioner to come up with a treatment plan which involves the child in the decision-making for a better future and the steps that need to be taken to achieve the desired goals.

Target groups:

• Street-child-connected organizations; Rescues centres that counsel children and reintegrate them back into the community.
• Institutions that counsel the affected children within their communities.
• Schools: To understand the underlying meaning of children’s problems and hence prevent learners from dropping out of school.

Based on the rich experience gained over the years, Foundation PIP has come up with a Training Manual and Handbook, as a way of sharing their experiences with practitioners and Trainers of Trainers (TOTs) to train colleagues in this unique counseling technique.