My Leadership in Action (LiA) placement with SOS Children’s Villages in Cape Town was intended to contribute to the education and general wellbeing of the children through workshops and activities. I spent six weeks working alongside fellow scholars, initially focusing on developing activities that could provide educational and recreational value to the children. Although the placement ultimately developed in ways that I could not have anticipated, I was able to contribute through regular reading workshops, participation in safeguarding responses, and the development of a vision-care proposal for the children.

Reading workshops and educational engagement

During the first week, we focused on becoming familiar with one another, our coordinator and the centre. We met the children only once during this period, and they appeared enthusiastic about our arrival. During the following weeks, we began developing our individual and group workshops.

I chose to focus on reading because it is something I personally enjoy and therefore felt I could approach with genuine enthusiasm. I worked with two groups: children approximately two to five years old and children approximately six to eight years old. My intention was not to significantly improve literacy within the six weeks, which would have been unrealistic, but rather to create positive experiences around reading and encourage the children to see it as an enjoyable activity rather than solely an academic requirement. My objectives were:

• to deliver regular, age-appropriate reading sessions to both groups, adapting activities based on the children's engagement; and
• to encourage children participating in these sessions to associate reading with enjoyment, curiosity and positive social interaction, using their voluntary participation, engagement and willingness to return as indicators of progress.

The workshops required considerably more adaptation than I had initially expected. I developed the individual sessions myself and learned through trial and error what worked best. One particularly important discovery was that smaller groups produced substantially better engagement. I also found that using a particular room helped establish an environment where the children were more inclined to concentrate and behave appropriately. Rather than treating the original format as fixed, I adjusted the workshops based on my observations.

The children generally responded very positively. They enjoyed participating and increasingly engaged with the sessions. While I cannot claim to have established a lasting reading habit in six weeks, I believe the workshops achieved the more immediate objective of making reading an enjoyable experience. A specific moment that reinforced this belief was one child’s enthusiasm about a specific book, confirming my suspicion that a positive association with reading had started to form.

The workshops also had an impact beyond their immediate educational purpose. As the children became more familiar with us, they increasingly sought us out outside the activities themselves. They would approach us to talk, compete for our attention and spontaneously share things about their lives. This growing trust became one of the most significant features of the placement and subsequently had implications for how we understood our responsibilities towards the children.

Safeguarding and adapting to changing circumstances

As relationships developed, particularly with the older children, they began sharing more about their personal lives. Some initial safeguarding concerns were relatively mild, however we soon found many of the more serious concerns through information that children shared with us. These concerns escalated into grave safeguarding issues which I will not describe in detail here, both because those details are unnecessary for assessing the impact of the LiA and because protecting the privacy and dignity of the children involved is more important.

We responded by raising concerns through the appropriate channels and working closely with our coordinator. Although we had not received extensive safeguarding training, we felt sufficiently prepared to recognise that the situation required action and escalation. As the situation developed, the relationship between the volunteers and some members of staff became increasingly difficult. Staff became obstructive and passive-aggressive, and the volunteers consequently adopted an especially professional approach in our interactions with them. Our intention was to avoid unnecessary conflict and, as far as possible, preserve our ability to work with the children.

Eventually, the situation was assessed and we were advised not to return to the centre. This meant that for several weeks we were unable to interact with the children at all. From an impact perspective, this inevitably disrupted the original programme. However, the safeguarding response itself was arguably the most important part of our contribution. SOS Children’s Villages South Africa acted swiftly and organisational changes took place at a surprising pace, which meant that there was an immediate improvement in the quality of life of the children living at the centre. However, even more important are the long-term impacts. Firstly, because of the organisational changes and the special attention that centre is now receiving, the future children that will go there have a better chance of having a better life. Secondly, the children that trusted us with their issues saw from up-close how important it is to raise their voices and speak their mind, they were exposed to an almost immediate change for the better and that will empower them in their life.

Identifying an unmet need: the vision-care proposal

In the last week of the placement, the interim director of the centre asked us to use the remaining days more as a “desk job” and identify a problem we had witnessed at the centre for which we could develop a potential solution. I had already identified one such issue through my reading workshops. Children had mentioned difficulties seeing text clearly, including that some writing appeared too small or blurry. This initially appeared as a relatively minor nuisance, but given the connection between vision and educational participation, I considered it worth investigating further.

I had previously raised the issue with staff but received little assistance in addressing it. The absence of any children having prescription glasses was also striking given the size of the population at the centre, which was approximately 90 children. While this did not by itself demonstrate that there was a widespread vision problem, it raised the question of whether children's visual needs had been systematically assessed. I therefore developed an individual 3-tier proposal. The core idea of the first tier was to establish a process through which the children could receive an initial, informal, vision screening. Then, moving into the second tier, the screening would be followed by professional optometric assessment where necessary. Children requiring corrective lenses could then be referred for glasses. The third tier considered the possibility of establishing relationships with external optometry providers and sponsors so that the programme could be implemented annually without placing an unrealistic financial burden on SOS. I used the 3-tier system to give SOS different alternatives regarding how much resources they want/could invest. Still, even the higher tier was deliberately practical and low-resource. It did not require the creation of a new medical service within SOS; rather, it aimed to connect the organisation with existing professional services and establish a straightforward referral mechanism. Potential external partnerships could also reduce the cost of examinations and glasses, which is why I took the liberty of starting to contact local optometrists. However, by the time of our departure no partnership was secured.

I presented the proposal to Head Offices during a meeting that was very positive. SOS committed to implementing the base level of the proposal. I do not know what happened to the initiative after I left, so I cannot claim that the programme was ultimately implemented or that it produced measurable long-term outcomes. Nevertheless, the proposal represents the clearest example of a project that emerged directly from my experience with the children. It began with an apparently small comment during a reading session and developed into an attempt to address a structural barrier to educational participation. It also demonstrated that an impact initiative does not necessarily require significant resources: identifying an existing problem, understanding its practical implications and connecting the organisation with feasible solutions can itself be valuable.

Overall impact and Laidlaw values

The impact of my LiA can therefore be understood at several levels. At the most immediate level, the reading workshops provided children with regular opportunities to engage with books in a positive and enjoyable environment, and the safeguarding reports yielded a change in the relevant staff members. At an organisational and long-term level, the safeguarding concerns were raised and escalated through the appropriate channels, while the vision-care proposal provided SOS with a practical intervention that it committed to taking forward.

I cannot precisely quantify the long-term impact of either the safeguarding response or the vision-care proposal, and I think it would be inappropriate to claim outcomes that occurred after my departure without evidence. Instead, the strongest evidence of impact lies in the processes that were initiated and the impact we know it caused of the children’s empowerment and voice. The LiA did not produce a simple progression from activity to measurable outcome. Its impact was shaped by circumstances beyond my control, and some of the most responsible decisions we made involved stopping rather than continuing an activity. This has influenced how I now understand impact: it is not always about completing the largest number of planned activities, but about responding appropriately to the circumstances in front of you and leaving behind something that has the potential to be useful.

Conclusion

My LiA began with the relatively straightforward aim of supporting children's education and wellbeing through workshops. The reading programme achieved this on a small but tangible level, particularly by creating positive experiences around reading and allowing me to adapt an activity to the children's needs. This changed substantially because of serious safeguarding concerns, and although this prevented us from continuing our original activities, responding appropriately to those circumstances became the most important part of our contribution. Finally, the vision-care proposal allowed me to turn an observation from my workshops into a practical intervention that SOS committed to taking forward.

I therefore consider the main impact of the LiA to have been a combination of direct educational engagement, responsible safeguarding action, children empowerment and the identification of a practical organisational improvement. Not all of these outcomes can be measured, and some remain uncertain. I believe acknowledging those limitations is an important part of accurately assessing the impact of the placement.