Celebrating African Motherhood - Amref

52
Catch Me Before I Fall
The delightful sound of children singing fl ows from an offi ce trailer at the
Dindela Community Home-Based Care Centre in Sekhukhune District,
Limpopo. It is lunchtime, and a group of teenagers is making music as they
wait for the smaller children to eat before they take their turn in the dining
room. Three girls swing hoolahoops outside, a few metres away from the
open door of a shed in which two women are fussing over huge, steaming
pots.
In another offi ce trailer, Miriam Sibongile is winding up a meeting of
community care workers to review the past month’s activities and plan
for the next. There are 22 community organisations working in Dindela.
Sibongile supervises the 35 care workers drawn from these organisations
who work with the 3,230 children who have so far been identifi ed for the
programme.
“Every day, we go house-to-house looking for children living in diffi cult
circumstances and checking on the progress of those already registered,”
says Sibongile. “They may be orphaned and alone, or they may have
guardians, a parent, or two sick parents who are unable to look after them.
We monitor the health of the children and assess their needs for food,
school uniform, medication or psychological support.”
The Dindela Centre, one of 16 drop-in centres in Sekhukhune, off ers
the children a place where they can get a meal, companionship and
psychological support. “We serve the children breakfast before they go to
school, then they come back for lunch. We help them with homework, and
they also have time for drama, singing and dancing.”
The caregivers take the children through life skills sessions, including lessons
on sexuality and how to cope with stressful situations. They are encouraged
to make ‘memory boxes’ in which to store jewellery, photographs, letters
and other keepsakes of loved ones who have died.
The community care workers link needy parents and guardians with the
social welfare offi ce so that they can get grants for child support – R240
(US$32) per month – given by the Government. A major challenge has been
lack of vital documents, such as birth certifi cates or parents’ identity cards,
which must be produced before they get the money. To ease the process of
getting the papers and processing of grants, AMREF has helped to create
a referral system between the community care givers, Department of
Social Services and relevant Government departments. The Department of
Health refers sick and needy children who show up at health facilities to
social workers, who link them up with the community care workers.
“By bringing together all the stakeholders, AMREF has helped us to
reach out to more children and give them substantial support,” Sibongile
observes. “We have been given tools to collect data about the children,
making it easier to meet their needs. The training we received from AMREF
has given us skills and knowledge to help the families to improve their
lives as we are able to advise parents and guardians on issues like good
management of their money and how to monitor the progress of their
children in school.”
Sibongile’s expression turns to one of concern as her gaze settles on a sad,
12-year-old girl sitting quietly alone. The girl’s leg is swollen and she has
bruises on her face. The night before, she had appeared at Sibongile’s door,
saying that she had been beaten by her grandfather, whom she and her
sister had gone to live with when their parents died. This is the third time
this has happened.
“I have spoken to the grandparents before and asked them not to mistreat treat