Children's Report - September 2007
We have been sending a newsletter out every month to all our friends and supporters to let them know how the children are and what the latest news is. This is the September edition of "News about the children". Instead of giving you a general run down about all the children, here is a more in-depth look at a few of the children.
Nombasa has been really ill with pleurisy and has been confined to bed for a number of days this month. She is in Grade 12 and it being her last year of school we have been very concerned about her school work. First there was the teacher's strike and then there were a number of days off school due to the teachers going to meetings, or to conferences or to funerals for retired teachers. Fortunately, we had a volunteer, Jean-Luc, who assisted her with catching up, but now with her being off due to illness, we are very concerned about the amount of school work she has missed. We hope and pray that she will recover quickly and that she has the strength of character and resolve to put the bad school year behind her and do her best in the exams. We are also trying to find a college for Nombasa that will take her with a student bursary as we do not have the funds for tertiary education. I am sure that we will be shown the way.
There is a good chance that Thabisa and Shanna being re-unified with their mother. She has shown a great amount of interest in her children over the last six months and has now got a steady job. The children are being counseled to return home eventually and the mother is receiving parental guidance and assistance so that she can eventually have her children living with her. These two girls are very fortunate in that they still have a mother and are not orphaned like the other children. They were taken into care by us three years ago because they were severely neglected and often abandoned by their mother. However, the mother has shown a complete turn around in her approach to the children and has shown that she is willing to accept the responsibility of the children. Thabisa is also now a teenager and is more able to care for herself and her younger sister. The children are happy to be on the re-unification program and the mother shows promise.
Tandi was our last intake. She is 11 years old and since she has been with
us she has gained weight and is blossoming. She had never been to school prior
to coming to us and was at a distinct disadvantage, having been orphaned,
abandoned and neglected, on top of not having been to school. There was no
opening at either of the Afrikaans schools, the language that she was more
proficient at and therefore had to attend the local Xhosa school. This again
put her at another disadvantage. She also had no birth certificate and this
took months to procure, given the type of service delivery we have to deal
with. Tandi is getting extra attention from Jackson, the Senior Childcare
Worker and is also getting extra attention from Diana Jagers, the Children's
Home Supervisor. We are looking into the possibility of moving her into the
junior Afrikaans school in the new year. She is however, healthy and is adjusting
well to the home and the other children.
For those who remember the children run children, Betty was one of the children
who lived in the chicken run. She arrived in 2002 as a 10 year old who had
been gang-raped and who had a lump on her head as large as a tennis ball where
she had been beaten with a brick. She was a pitiful sight. She is now a beautiful,
tall, confident 15 year old who is extremely protective of the smaller children.
Her school work is good, she works hard on her studies, is willing to assist
with housework, has an incredibly regal way of walking and is an all round
stunning teenager. I am very proud of her.
Those who remember Lisakhanya will remember him as the baby who arrived with fetal alcohol syndrome. He was a floppy, non-responsive baby who could not hold his head up. In fact, he was the ugliest baby I had ever seen with a head much too big for the skinny little body that was attached to it. I had little faith that he would be more than a vegetable lying in his cot for years. However, I kept my thoughts to myself and urged the staff to force him to sit and walk and talk and treat him as a normal baby. Lisakhaya today is a child of 3 years old who not only can sit, but can walk and talk and sing. He gets himself into trouble with the other children, communicates his likes and dislikes, knows every other child by name and is toilet trained. His head is still too big for his body and he is not the best looking kid around, but no one is going to stare at him or think he is "strange". Lisakhanya has surpassed everyone's expectations. He is healthy and his motor skills are good. He is developing mentally according to his age.
I have wavered many times over the last seven years, wondering whether I did the right thing with my life … but telling you about my children …. I know that I would not have it any other way. I strongly believe that a society that does not care for its children is a society that does not have a future. Anyone looking around them with open eyes can see the hunger and sadness and vulnerability in our children's eyes. I still believe in freedom for all, but freedom, especially for our children - freedom from hunger, fear, sickness and illiteracy - and the joy of feeling loved.
Much love and blessings
Dianne and the children