Bullying has been a major problem is South African schools for years, in some cases students have losttheir lives to bullying. Ntshegetse foundation, an NGO which consists of 16 women plans on adressingissues teenagers and parents face, with providing support to families that are in need.The organisation recently held a seminar in Ikageng, bringing parents and teenagers together, includingthe local SAPS, also community leaders. Dikeledi Machethulo, chairwoman of the organisation says themain aim of the event was to let parents know that whenever their childern are facing challenges, parentsshould always seek help to assist their children.“Nowadays our children are facing mamy challenges, especially teenagers, so with this campaign, wewant to reach out to parents, to let them know we here to assist them to assist their children. Parentsshould learn to always check on their children, you see how our suicide rate is high amongst teenages,mainly because parents don't even notice when their children are going through depression, so they mustreach out, to their children and also for help.” she said.Dikeledi also added that most of the problems faced by the youth today can be avoidable, and saystechnology is mostly to blame for today's misguided youth. “Technology has ruined our youth, which hasmade hard for parents, there's cyber bullying, lots of bad things of the internet of which we as parentscannot relate to, but all these things are avoidable. Our youth just need proper guidance and good rolemodels to lead them.” said Dikeledi.Ntshegetse wants to take their campaigns to school, and also include relevant departments, especially inhigh schools where bullying is major problem.Mrs Seka Sizani Kelobang,who also attended the event, says raising a teenage daughter with her lesbianpartner comes with a lot of challenges, especially because they are lesbians. Seka, who originally comesfrom the Eastern Cape, says constant bullying from people close to her, including family and friends, havetaught to show her daughter that it possible to overcome any obsticale. “It's raising a teenager, now in mycase, as a lesbian couple, there's also that added pressure because firstly our daughter is adopted, andthere's also people saying negative things, mostly people we know. But that has taught to be strong, toshow our daughter strength, that it's able to overcome anything. Our daughter understands we lesbian,even when people try to mock her about that, it doesn't offend her because she knows her parents loveher.” she said.Seka believes that showing love to your children, and also encouraging them to focus on their educationcan be very benefitial to the children's health, more especially mentally and emotionally.“You have to show your children that you love them, they must know that, to a point whereby if there'sanything affecting them, they are comfortable to communicate it with you, you as a parent need to ensureyour child is okay, mentally and emotionally. Also always encourge your children to do better, especiallywhen it comes to education, be there for them.”Kefilwe Mbele, sas she benefitted a lot from the event as she now knows how to reach out for assistancefor her troublesome nephew. “My nephew has been causing problems for us at home, not only at homebut also at school, bullying other children and that really worried us a lot as we didn'tknow how to handlehim. But now with Ntshegetse foundation, we are able to reach out for help.” she said.