Our response: A group of South African researchers, psychologists and professional people teamed up to find a way to tackle the problems. This led to the birth of Umthombo Wesizwe (The Spring of the Nation) Organisation in November 2007. At its roots was a successful but now defunct organisation known as “We Care” masterminded by the late Geraldine Manson. It operated primarily during the apartheid years in a bid to alleviate prejudice by building bridges among children of different racial groups. In 1997, “We Care” won a French Government Human Rights award for work in overcoming prejudice among children of South Africa The Umthombo Organisation has taken the “We Care” operation to a substantially elevated plane of equipping young people with skills to overcome the challenges that they face in a developing multi-cultural society. The Umthombo initiative is much more finely focused on a set of competencies known as Cultural Diversity Intelligence (CDI). It targets selected children aged 11-12 years. This age group has been specifically determined because international research indicated that it is at this age that children have developed the ability to understand abstract concepts. It is also a critical window period for the development of life-long identity and moral values. Additionally, at this age the communication between children and parents is still very strong and hence influences occur in both directions.
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