INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

children. In the case of Zukela, a seven year-old girl who moved into the center at
eighteen months of age, it was a hospital visit that led to her eventual placement. Social
workers at the hospital noted malnutrition and her family’s inability to care for her, and
ultimately put the family in touch with the center. Contact with families after placement
into the center is often maintained. My visit between January and February meant that the
children had recently returned from their scheduled hiatus from school around
Christmastime. During these breaks, children would often be released from the center to
spend time with their extended families, or even their parents. This can however be a
challenging time emotionally for children who do not have families able to receive them
during this break or who learn of a death in the family.
“The twins were an especially heartbreaking scenario,” recollects Pastor Mike of
two twin boys, now at seven years of age. “When we had to tell them of their mother’s
death, they cried and cried. They were happier again when they realized an aunt was on
her way to collect them for the holiday.” This suggested that at their development level at
the time, the death was mourned not only as a loss of a specific family member, but as a
feeling of being without family.
The children at the center, and their backgrounds, reflected the diversity that was
also indicated in the Chapter II literature review. Only a minority could be considered
“true” orphans with both parents deceased, however declining health and paternal
abandonment rendered most of them in a practically orphaned state. Only around a dozen
children out of the fifty at 5Cees tested positive for HIV/AIDS, however nearly all had
been affected by the disease in some way, most frequently through deaths or debilitating
illnesses in their family. Poverty intersected with the health-related challenges to breed
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