INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

came at the expense of the families’ trust. The retainment of partial guardianship by an
OVC’s extended family was often the most helpful piece of reassurance that encouraged
families to feel more at ease with the option of 5Cees. A partial guardianship provides
both parties with a sufficient amount of legal protections to feel secure in their ability to
personally advocate for the child’s future. As much as possible, the administration made
its commitment to the children and their families to provide up to two decades worth of
childcare.
The connection between siblings was also prioritized by the center, and one of the
center’s top concerns was to ensure that siblings would not be split apart. 5Cees typically
manages the number of children it can care for at one particular time carefully, not
wanting to overcrowd the center. They do reserve a degree of flexibility with the exact
numbers, however, so that the intake of siblings does not become a hinderance. The
importance of keeping siblings together even takes precedence over the center’s age
preference towards younger children. I recalled Pastor Mike's story of the set of five
siblings that had been adopted by a more affluent family in the Johannesburg suburbs. A
non-negotiable component of their adoption was that all siblings would be taken in
together. One of the biggest reasons adoption is not a more common course of action at
5Cees is that the partial guardianship makes it difficult for the adoption process to fully
materialize. This is seen as a worthwhile trade-off for the trust of a child’s extended
family. This is a connection that becomes further amplified in many cultural settings
across South Africa.
The frequency of visits made by the children to their extended families of origin
also enhanced the trust and comfort they felt towards the center. At the time of their
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