INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

The episode of expulsion clearly represented a more extreme circumstance. Day-today
disciplinary actions were the concerns of care mothers or those supervising
immediate activities, such as homework supervision time. When a five year old boy
nearly missed a bus ride to church by lingering too long in the toilet, he was sharply
reprimanded by his care mother in Zulu. His facial expression revealed that the negative
reinforcement sunk in.
Programs and Mentorships
As children get older, fewer and fewer of their behavioral interventions are
managed in a clinical setting. It is more common for the center to attempt to introduce
integrative ways to teach and reinforce positive life skills. Camps and extracurricular
activities are a few ways in which life skills are fostered. One community organization,
led by a woman named Patience Adesanya offered a special outdoors camp for many of
the children who did not have a home to return to over Christmas holidays from school.
The December visit to the camp coincided with the visit of a supporting church from
California to 5Cees. The church was so impressed by the camp’s activities to build
personal empowerment and encourage peer-to-peer learning that it agreed to sponsor
future attendance.
Mentorships play a big role in the psychosocial development of the children as they
get older. Many of these are held through a partnership the center has held for many years
with Bryanston Bible Church, a predominantly white mega-church in an upscale suburb
of Johannesburg. The church assembles groups of working professionals to take the
children out of the center for a short time of social interaction and personal
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