Baratang Initiative
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Recent work and latest articles
Embodied Learning and Imagination in Teacher Education
Date published: November 2023 In November 2023, Baratang Initiatives facilitated a six-day intensive HAPPY training in collaboration with Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand, and the NPO Phola. The programme brought together pre-service teachers from the Wits BEd programme alongside facilitators working in educational and community contexts. As part of this process, four trainers…
Movement, Rhythm, and Collective Healing
Date published: January 2023 – December 2023 The body often holds what words cannot. Because trauma lives in the body, healing must also involve the body. In response to this, Baratang Initiatives facilitated a six-day HAPPy training that highlighted the power of movement and rhythm as tools for regulation, connection, and resilience. This training took…
Healing Through Art: Preparing Future Teachers for Trauma-Responsive Classrooms
September 2025 – Centre for Creative Education. Children do not leave their experiences at the school gate. Many arrive in classrooms carrying stress, fear, and unspoken trauma — and teachers are often the first to notice when learning becomes difficult. In response, Baratang Initiatives facilitated a six-day HAPPy training for pre-service teachers at the Centre…
Emotional First Aid training: in-depth training for teachers and interns in South African Schools
Baratang Initiatives provides in-depth training for teachers and interns working in South African schools on how to support learners during times of upheaval.
Stabilizing and building agency on Zoom!
Baratang Initiatives provides a psycho-educational talk on the effects of trauma and how we can stabilize ourselves after a traumatic event with adolescents from Youth @ Work on Zoom.
Meeting this transgressional time with simple logical tools and knowledge about trauma
Baratang Initiatives work with adolescents affected by the riots and looting in Daveytown, Gauteng, South Africa.
About Baratang Initiative NPC (Baratang)
Baratang Initiative is a non-profit organisation strengthening trauma-informed psychosocial support within South African school communities and structurally disadvantaged contexts. We work to create safe, inclusive, and connected learning environments where young people and families can thrive.
Guided by Ubuntu, human-rights and eco-rights principles, we deliver innovative mental health support, training, and collaborative projects that empower individuals and strengthen community mental health systems. Through ethical practice, partnership, and continuous learning, we nurture resilience, belonging, and sustainable futures for learners, educators, and communities.
Our field of work
South Africa faces high levels of violence, gender-based harm, and widespread exposure to trauma. Shaped by complex socio-political histories and the pressures of contemporary life, many communities continue to experience deep psychosocial challenges. Children are particularly vulnerable and often carry the greatest burden of these impacts.
In response, we work closely with children and school communities through trauma-informed therapeutic interventions, psycho-educational support, and capacity-building programmes. We partner with educators, parents, and key stakeholders to strengthen sustainable support systems that promote individual and collective agency, resilience, and wellbeing among learners and their wider communities.
Connect with Baratang
Send one of the Baratang members an email or ask for more insight in the query form on the contact page