Child Welfare
THE CHILD Welfare for Durban and District is an amalgamation of apartheid-era organisations serving different races, the oldest of which dates back to 1918.
Durban Child and Family Welfare Society, formerly known as Durban Child Welfare Society, was established in 1918. In 1927, Indian women founded the Durban Indian Child and Welfare Society, which later became the the Child Family and Community Care Centre. And the Durban Bantu Child Welfare Society was established in 1936.
In 1990, the black and Indian societies merged.
In 1999, they joined the Durban Child and Family Welfare Society to form the present organisation.
Its key functions are to prevent family crisis situations, intervene early when children are identified as vulnerable and provide statutory services, which may lead to alternate care, foster care, residential care or adoption and monitoring.
“We render services to about 2 800 children in alternate care. These children need to be monitored and supervised,” said Shere Khan, senior manager for community services.
“We also offer care for approximately 200 children at our Child and Youth Care centres.”
Readers wishing to make donations may contact Glenda Arends on 031 312 9313 or e-mail her on info@ cwdd.org.za.
For further information, visit www.cwdd.org.za
DUNCAN GUY
A FOSTER mother and child, whose identities may not be revealed, told The Independent on Saturday of the stress of renewing the fostering arrangement every two years and the power the courts give to uninvolved biological parents.
The foster mother said she had spent the past nine years trying to adopt her “son”.
Although the boy is approaching matric, with evidence of numerous achievements on his school blazer, she feels that adolescents still need a sense of belonging and she plans to persevere.
“Every two years we go through the process. Interviews, school reports and so on. It’s very traumatic for children. He would hide under the bed.”
Once his biological parents “all of a sudden” said they wanted him for the Christmas holidays.
“His dad had never worked and he and his mother already had a little girl sharing only a double bed with them in a shelter. They wanted him to beg for them in the streets.”
The foster mother said a social worker had approached her, saying that the boy was to be dropped at the shelter and could be collected on January 2. This, in spite of a court order that they could only see him under supervision at the Child Welfare office.
“I was told that if I didn’t do so, there would be consequences. I said I would face the consequences and I refused. Eventually, on the first day of school, they wanted to fetch him but the school knew the situation.”
She said such “touch and go situations” were very stressful.
The boy had originally stayed in a children’s home – not Child Welfare – an experience that convinced him and his foster mother that fostering and adopting is preferable to children staying in homes. The reason: bullying.
“Before he came to me, for two years we fetched him for holidays and weekends. At first he could eat only rice. The older kids would take the chicken away. Meat was too rich. It would make him sick. It took a while to wean him properly.”
The foster mother believes that more funding for Child Welfare could help alleviate the problem and make more care workers available.
The boy himself, who dreams of becoming a paramedic, said he was grateful for having been given a second chance. “I would probably still be in the home had it not been for them. Often I would like to tell peers to wake up. A lot of kids need to appreciate what they have.”
Sadly, not all youngsters are success stories. “When children as young as 12 or 13 begin to present challenging behaviour, we are able to assist. However, as they get older, they are resistant to intervention and services become very challenging,” said Shere Khan, senior manager for community services.
“Often this latter group of children get involved in drug abuse, are already sexually active, indulge in petty theft and are in conflict with the law.
“Child Welfare Durban and District endeavours to provide children with a safe and protective environment where they enjoy the attachment and bonding with a stable caregiver as early as possible.”