INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

CHAPTER IV
THE CARE CENTER:
A COMMUNITY WITHIN A COMMUNITY
My Time at 5Cees
The center’s physical design allows for some insulation from the outside street
area, which is densely populated and widely considered unsafe due to crime and violence.
Each of the different units acts as a dormitory for children who are separated by gender
and age. The center provides space for learning, eating, living, and play, as well as its
administrative functions. It was on this site that I spent the majority of my time taking in
the interpersonal dynamics of all those who considered the site their home or workplace.
Throughout my time at 5Cees, I was allowed plenty of interaction with the
children. It was only during school hours when I did not have children from ages five to
nineteen around. Because of the already established familiarity between myself and many
of the children, I was in an ideal position to begin almost immediately exploring the big
questions central to my study: What was life like for these children before they came to
the center? What happened in their lives to result in them coming here? I had already
known that the needs that they had coming in to the center ranged from food and clothing
to medicine and psychological care. How did the center handle the broad and extensive
challenges those needs presented? I would also need to take into consideration the
cultural setting of the center. The center aimed to provide a good childhood for the
children living there, but I wanted to know what was considered a good childhood from a
South African perspective. Given the diversity of cultures that comprised the people of
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