June 12, 2002
By Lucille Davie
THINK about children and Hillbrow and what comes to mind? Street children, glue-sniffing, begging. Perhaps hundreds, even thousands of them. No school. No future. No hope.
It gets so bad, says shelter administrator Mildred Mhlanga, that these children will even step into the road without looking either way for traffic, knowing the dangers. "They do this because they don't value life any more - the street destroys them," she says.
But herein lies the challenge for Mhlanga of Twilight Shelter, one of several homes for street children in Hillbrow, an overcrowded, rundown suburb of the city. Her attitude is unequivocal: "We've got to look after them. If we don't, who will?"
These homeless children do have homes, but most have run away, for a range of reasons: overcrowded shacks (as many as 10 people per shack), unemployed parents and hunger, harsh authority at home, or destitute homes where the children were expected to beg for a living.
Twilight Shelter is not only giving them a home but endeavours to re-unite them with their families, with a back-up programme to ensure that they stay there.
"We generally keep the children for about two to three years before they are relocated back home," Mhlanga explains. If they come from an overcrowded home, they may be relocated with an aunt or uncle, and "most go back home before they reach 17".
Together with her dedicated staff of 15, Mhlanga, a mother of two teenagers, looks after 72 boys at the Shelter, from ages eight to 16. Children walk into the Shelter off the streets, or are brought in by the police or members of the public.
But not always. One mother, living with her six and eight-year-old at Park Station, brought her two boys in because it was getting too cold at night at the Station. Although it's policy not to accept boys younger than eight, both boys were taken in.
When filling in the admission form, most boys will give a hard luck story, typically claiming that their parents have died. "This first story is to gain sympathy but we wait for the time when he opens up, usually when he is missing home," explains Mhlanga. The shelter has a team of two social workers and six care workers to help the boys cope with that reality.
The Shelter, painted a pretty baby blue on the outside and in the foyer, is sparse but clean and adequate. The ground floor houses a TV room cum dining hall, with tables and chairs, and shabby but comfortable couches against the wall. The library is around the corner, dominated by a piano and desks.
Two upper floors are the dormitories - painted in cheerful lilac, with beds, lockers and bunks positioned around the walls, lined with posters of soccer heroes and clubs.
As soon as the boys are accepted into the Shelter, they have to agree to abide by the rules: no dagga smoking or glue sniffing, no begging on the streets, no guarding cars for money. Mhlanga fears that if they earn money from the streets, they will stay on the streets, hence the rule.
There's another rule: if they're under 17, they have to go to school. The boys go to school several kilometres away in Cottlesloe, the New Nation School, run by a dedicated and caring staff.
Both school and shelter have the same aim for the children - to keep them off the streets and to re-unite them with their families.
There is a stepped programme in this regard. "The children are encouraged to go home on Fridays and visit for the weekend," says Mhlanga.
They mostly come back before the weekend is out, or go back to the street. In an effort to encourage the boys to stay the whole weekend, Mhlanga and her team put together a food parcel for each boy - after this they stayed the whole weekend and didn't end up on the street.
When boys are placed back in their homes there is an intense after-care programme. The Shelter pays for school fees, school uniforms and books and the Gauteng government subsidises nutrition by giving each boy three meals a day. The programme reduces its support until a family member has a job.
There is a hard-working cook at the Shelter - she starts breakfast for the boys at 6am, on a very slow, antiquated stove. The boys take turns at washing up, and no sooner are the dishes done than the lunch meal for around 200 kids is put on the stove.
At 2.30pm each day the Shelter provides meals for 100 street children in its outreach programme. An hour later the boys come home from school, and the cook has a meal ready for them.
The Shelter runs on generous donor contributions. Foreign donors come from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. The list of local donors is impressive and includes corporates, schools, churches and individuals, as well as regular monthly and product donors.
There is a small percentage of boys over 17 who will never be re-united with their families: when they are brought to the Shelter as 8-year-olds, often by the police, they are so traumatised by their street experience that they can't remember their family details. There is a senior bridging programme for these boys, especially those who still can't read and write by 17. One such boy has been trained as a security guard and is looking for a job.
Other older boys who are literate but haven't found jobs are involved in a creative project in a neighbouring house. A group of eight older boys over 18 have been learning pottery skills, and with two donated kilns and clay, are producing cups, bowls and vases, which they sell at Johannesburg's flea markets. Fifty percent of the sales go to these boys, and 50% goes to the shelter.
These older boys stay in one of three buildings the Shelter administers in Hillbrow, but they still get their meals from the Shelter.
There's a lot of people giving of their time to make the shelter work - a volunteer nurse from the Lutheran Church comes in every weekend and administers to the boys with donated medicine; volunteers help with homework in the afternoons; and donations are delivered daily to the Shelter.
"The shelter provides the boys with school uniforms, but casual clothes and shoes come from donations," says Mhlanga, opening a storeroom which is crowded with clothes, shoes and duvets, as well as tracksuits the boys received on one of their outings.
That outing was a trip to the Magaliesberg for a week, which was "wonderful", says Mhlanga.
Panasonic has taken four boys under their wing and pays for their school fees and other extras; in exchange they work at the company during holidays. "This gives the boys a lot of motivation."
For three years the boys have been going to adventure resort Aventura in Heidelberg, 55 kilometres south of Johannesburg, one month before Christmas, where they spend the day having fun at the swimming pool, the trampolines and playing volleyball or put-put.
"We put up a poster on the gate advertising the trip, and on the day we have 250 children turn up for the fun," says Mhlanga. A donor pays for the buses, and Aventura sponsors the day. "They eat a lot, and at least for a day they have what others have."
It can't be easy being mother to 72 kids - so, how does she do it? "I get satisfaction in knowing that I am doing something for them," she says, "when they come to us they are a mess. Once they have bathed, put on new clothes and shoes (we throw away their old clothes), they have a new pride in themselves - it is good to see."
If she had a wish list, what would she put on it? "I would like a sponsor to pay for gas for our gas stoves. We had to disconnect them because the gas bills were too high, but we would prefer to cook on them. We also need more beds and bunks."
Despite these shortcomings, Twilight Shelter works for the boys. There's one sure way to tell - the gate is not locked, which means "they are free to go, but usually don't".
That must mean a lot to the staff at the Shelter.
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