INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

The question remains of how to categorize the population of children residing in
and receiving care from an institutionalized setting. Children residing at institutions may
have both parents, one parent, or neither parent deceased; they may be twice orphaned in
the event of a grandparent’s death. (Nyamukapa & Gregson, 2005; Nyamukapa, 2006;
Monasch, 2005; Crampin, 2003; Masmas, 2004; Bhargava, 2005) Children residing at an
institution may still be connected to older siblings or other family members who remain
invested in the child’s development while relying on the institution for partial support.
(Ramphele, 2002)
Not all children residing in an institution are parentless, and not all of South
Africa’s children who are without parents reside in an institution. (Henderson, 1999;
Jones, 1993) Across Sub-Saharan Africa, family structures are traditionally non-nuclear,
and a continuum of adults may provide care upon parental death. (Giese, 2003) The strain
of resources and societal challenges, coupled with the rapid rate at which the HIV/AIDS
epidemic proliferated orphanhood and destitution, families and local communities have
more recently encountered a difficulty in responding to the expansive needs of orphaned
children that lacks a historical precedent. (Bequele, 2007) Furthermore, the postapartheid
era has seen weakened networks, greater residential instability, and more
instances of widowhood, divorce, and abandonment. (Berg & Schärf, 2004; Nina, 2000;
Breetzke, 2010) Cape Town area surveys reported that only around 50% of children in
the area reside with both biological parents, with absent fathers being the most freqently
reported alternative. (Bray, et. al.. 2010) These various challenges have resulted in a
heavier dependency on institutionalized care only in more recent decades.
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