INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

with low resources. The popular perception of such institutions often fails to account for
these realities. (Richter & Norman, 2010; Williamson & Greenberg, 2010)
In South Africa, the need for child care institutions is further amplified by the
region’s longstanding HIV/AIDS epidemic. Due to the widespread casualities across
Sub-saharan Africa as a result of the disease, the region has had an unprecedented boom
in the number of orphaned children. Many of these children are themselves afflicted by
the disease. Poverty and other social concerns continue to threaten children across the
region, rendering institutionalization as a means of survival. These are some of the
challenges that frame the following study on an institution, set in an urban neighborhood
in Johannesburg marked by a high crime rate. The findings that result examine that ways
in which a childcare institution does or does not match popular perception, and what
actually happens within its facilities.
Purpose of the Study
The aim of my study is to investigate and relay the way a child care center in
urban Johannesburg adapts to the diversity of the children it serves, including their
histories and developmental challenges as orphans and vulnerable children. This study
incorporates participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, open-ended questions,
and visual methods. My research aims to highlight the complexity of the discourse
surrounding the population broadly conceptualized as “orphans” and will lead towards
recommendations for international supporters of child care centers, nonprofits that seek to
raise awareness and funds, the care centers’ own approaches to representing themselves,
and the general perception of such institutions.
2