INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

CHAPTER VI
MIDDLE CHILDHOOD (AGES 10-14)
THE CHALLENGES OF SAFETY, INFLUENCES, AND, EDUCATION
As the last chapter explored, the challenges that young children face at the center
are mostly psychological, as they adjust from a township life with family to an
institutionalized life where family is still heavily involved. In the majority of instances,
the effects of early traumas evolve in complexity and manifestaton as children get older.
When children become more conscious of the new worlds of school and the surrounding
neighborhood these psychological challenges are often tied to learning difficulties and
safety concerns. This chapter will look into these two primary concerns for children
growing up at the center: safety and education, and how the center struggles with limited
resources and other challenges to help children cope.
While children who move into 5Cees do not typically sever all of their existing
attachments to siblings, surviving parents, or other relatives after moving in, the
transition still represents a major shift to a new way of life. Although it can sometimes
take a long time for the new reality to set in, many children had, by the time I conducted
my fieldwork, spent enough years for that to have happened. Buzwe was a fitting
example of this. Now the oldest boy and close to being emancipated, he first moved into
the center at around eight years of age. He has grown up in the center, and graduated
through different departments. The center has been in existence for fifteen years, meaning
that for all but a few individuals, it would be impossible to imagine life without Buzwe.
Among the current first or second graders, it appeared that there were a number of
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