INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

ultimately takes on is that he would not be satisfied to have invested eighteen years into a
child’s development only to have that child turn to a destructive life in early adulthood
due to a lack of opportunities. While he might not describe “upward mobility” as one of
the center’s overall goals, the center’s goals could not be completely realized without safe
and self-sustaining options for the children who age out.
The other question that would be raised, then, is if this potential for upward
mobility unintentionally incentivizes parents to become dependent on institutions as a
means of providing their children with a better adulthood. This would be nearly
impossible to prove or disprove. In many cases it would likely be true to some extent.
However, when the conditions of the families that Pastor Mike usually offers the center’s
help are taken into consideration, it seems unlikely that this would happen too frequently.
He habitually takes on families shortly removed from a crisis or traumatic event, as
taking families in simply on the basis of a disadvantaged social position would
overextend the center’s capabilities.
Seeking realistic opportunities for the future
“I know what we don’t want to happen,” elaborates Pastor Mike. “We don’t want
our children, someone like Nando or Phumeza, after having invested in them for decades,
to find themselves turning to drugs or street life or prostitution. I especially worry a lot
about our teenage girls sometimes. This is a very dangerous place to be a young woman,
and there is a lot of sex trafficking that goes on just outside the center. But this means
that they need the vision and the motivation to do something else.” Whether or not the
center should be the main actor in overseeing a child’s early adulthood was ambiguous,
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