Over two years, Plant Play has reached 542 children aged between 10 and 15 in Diepsloot, Gauteng, one of the thirty gender-based violent hotspot areas in South Africa. These areas were identified by the South African Police Service based on reported crime data including rape, domestic violence, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, kidnapping, and human trafficking.

Identifying a perpetrator tells us who. It does not tell us why.

Asking this question ‘why’ forces us to pay attention to the early years in a child’s life, while they are forming their sense of self and learning how to treat others.

Children live in the same world we do. They see what we see and hear what we hear. Repeated exposure to violence, abuse, and crime results in children living with chronic stress and fear.

Childhood and adolescence are critical periods in which cognitive and social-emotional skills are still developing. Trauma can disrupt this growth, affecting judgement, impulse control and the ability to understand consequences. If left unresolved, the suppression of these emotions can resurface in adulthood through violence, disengagement, self-harm or harm to others.

Words become conversations that become actions.

Support exists, but seeking it often means being associated with terms such as abused, suicidal, mentally unwell or depressed. For both adults and children, the stigma attached to these words can discourage seeking help for fear of being seen as less normal, less capable or someone to be feared.

If people do not ask for help, how are their mental health needs recognised?

A Simple Flower

What if every child were given the freedom to play and grow, not as a luxury, but as a right?

It’s mid-morning, and we are all sitting under the tree for shade. It’s a beautiful sunny day in Diepsloot and we are having “circle”.

“Circle” are small groups where we share the best and bravest moments we experience during Plant Play.

Plant Play, a structured psychosocial programme by Human Nature Africa, uses environmental education through the care of a non-food flower to help children explore their feelings and build identity. The simplicity of a flower is intentional. Nature provides a safe focus to gain confidence in their abilities and creates space for children to explore their emotions alongside challenges and celebrations. It gives them tangible evidence that their actions matter.

Conversations that happen in “circle”

A 14-year-old boy said he cannot sleep because he does not know what will happen at night. He knows people commit crimes because they want money and will take what they can. He says he knows poverty. “Even if there is only one loaf of bread, I don’t take the bread. I accept that it’s tough. If I take that bread, what would my mother and even my little brother eat?

A boy, sitting next to a young girl, speaks about rape. “It just becomes one of those cases. Even when someone says: ‘I was raped’, people would point her out in public and say, ah, it’s that one. She is only 13 and exposed to such things. I don’t think that should be normal. Even when someone gets killed. The problem is normalising things that shouldn’t be normal.”

When asked why they think people hurt others, a boy answers: “I think it’s because they experienced it. Growing up or now. They want to reduce the pain of what happened to them.”

Growing a flower establishes a different social norm: boys and girls are equally capable, equally valued and equally responsible for how they treat themselves and others. As they learn to nurture their plant, they also begin to recognise their own capacity to care and connect.

Preventing Violence

The 2025 Plant Play pilot provided preliminary results of developmental benefits that may contribute to reducing aggression and preventing violence among young people. The research conducted amongst 256 participants provided evidence of improved emotional regulation and coping skills, together with increased empathy, patience, responsibility and constructive responses to setbacks.

Over 14 weeks, the proportion of children reporting feeling calmer and better able to regulate their own emotions more than doubled from 35% to 73%.

Plant Play’s reported gains in emotional self-regulation offers an intervention that strengthens emotional capacities. It provides a significant opportunity for case identification and referral to appropriate support and has the potential to prevent aggression and violence.

Learning to cope with grief

A 12-year-old had lost her twin brother in a traumatic accident. She described years of anger and withdrawal, avoiding others because she did not want pity. Caring for her plant helped to rebuild her relationship with her mother. It gave them something to talk about when talking about the loss was difficult.

She returned the following year as a volunteer Plant Play mentor.

“I think it’s so awesome. I will teach them how I was taught last year, and then we all learn the same thing. We will treat each other with respect and hope.

“That plant changed my life.”