| Serving Homeless Girls |
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Urbanisation, high unemployment, crime and political violence in South Africa during the 1980s and the 1990s produced a chaotic social environment in which the HIV and AIDS pandemic flourished and stable life regressed. This has resulted in a high number of children becoming homeless and/or being orphaned by AIDS in KwaZulu Natal.
Other factors influencing many children to take up street life include-
- Long-term unemployment amongst parents
- Cramped and poor living conditions
- Limited education opportunities
Tennyson House Project serves homeless children in and around the city of Durban. Working with children, youth and their families in areas of prevention and early intervention, the intention is to keep families together.
Tennyson House Project serves in the following ways-
The Street Team: working independently yet in connection with other organisations around Durban, works with the children living on the streets or using the streets to beg for money to take home. The program’s intention is to encourage these young people to return home, and not turn to begging as a source of income.
The Residential Team: runs a short-term residential base program for girls. Offering opportunities for personal development and intervention within families, this program is geared towards reunification. It also provides after care for the girls once they return home.
The Community Team: through the community drop-in-centres, we implement community-based prevention programmes in communities where children are at high risk of moving away from home and onto the streets.
The Intensive Intervention Program is to provide intensive services to individual cases from the other programs. This is to eliminate diversion of staff from the programs they serve and ensure that all children receive the care they need and that proper services are offered.
Street Based Outreach Programs
The street team provides effective street based interventions to children on the streets so that they return home or into a short-term residential based program. The program’s goal is to build trust with vulnerable young people and encourage them to make positive life choices, such as moving off the streets.
This process begins with locating the areas where children living on the street are present and starting to build emotionally safe and trusted relationships. Staff collect any relevant information about the child so they understand the best way to help them. While doing this, the staff also meet the basic needs of the children. Some of the services the staff provide include a sandwich and fruit program, taking children to the clinic or hospital, providing a place for bathing and washing, and facilitating the acquisition of birth certificates. The team also facilitates creative, developmental diversion programs for the children on the streets. These programs include setting up and training a soccer team, running creative arts and drama programs to allow children the chance to express their thoughts and ideas. Life skills programs enable children to develop skills and reflect on their decision making, and we also help girls on the street to participate in the Lifeline Life Skill program for child sex workers.
Assisting children to return home is another important aspect of the street team’s job. Case conferencing is conducted with young people and their families to work through complex issues in preparation for reunification. They locate the family and assess the situation, prepare the child to return home by explaining the process, mediate between the family and child, provide appropriate counselling and support and agree between all parties on the terms of the placement.
Once the children have returned home the team provide aftercare support. Monitoring the children with home visits and phone calls, the street team are able to assess the ongoing needs of the families and assist them with registering at schools, finding mentors from within the community and linking them to other services until the team decide the family can function without their help.
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Residential Care (Family Readiness Program)
The Tennyson House residential program aims to provide a safe, secure and child-friendly environment for girls in Durban who are ready to make the move from the streets to home. The residential team prepares girls and their families (or alternative families in the case of unsuitable blood relatives) for reunification. They assess and capture accurate information on all girls who are admitted into their care and provide for basic needs of the girls (healthy and culturally appropriate diet, basic medical care, bedding and clothing).
The team provide for the holistic development of the girls in care. This is done in five areas-
Mentally-The girls are registered into school and supported in their adjustment back into formal schooling. Regular meeting are held with the teachers to check on the girls’ progress. Supportive homework programs are provided, as are library visits.
Physically- Extra-mural activities, internally and externally, are provided for physical health. Hygiene programs, education around physical development, puberty and sexuality and immunisation are provided for the girls, as well as time being put aside for girls to play.
Socially- The girls participate in life orientation skills programs. Group work is done around family reunification. They are given guidance around sexuality and relationships (in consultation and agreement with the girls and their families, encourage responsible and relevant sexual behaviour like abstinence, safe sex and the use of contraceptives). The girls are encouraged to build relationships with people outside of the shelter. Opportunities are created for girls to serve in a way that they are giving back to someone in need.
Spiritually- Participation in a local church allows for personal sharing of a faith journey with Jesus in a way that is relevant and addresses their emotional and spiritual needs.
Emotionally- Counselling is provided, with referrals to outside organisations if required for special counselling needs.
A routine is established so the girls can learn to manage in a family environment. They are taught independent living skills that equip girls when they are living in the communities again. Necessary documentation is acquired for girls, such as birth certificates, ID documentation, foster/child grants, when appropriate, with the involvement of the family.
As soon as the girls enter the shelter the process of family reunification is started. Families are located, their needs assessed and an agreement is made around a plan for reunification. Home visits and phone calls are organised for the girls to begin to repair their family relationships again. Workshops are held for the families of the girls to provide counselling and transfer parenting skills. The residential team also identify support within the community for the family. Once the family and child feel confident and agree they are ready to move forward, the placement of the child in the shelter ends and the child returns home.
The residential team also provide aftercare, offering emotional support the children and their families after reunification. This after care is structured around an agreement between the YFC staff, the family and the girl on what the support should entail. The team make home and school visits to see how the child is coping and to uncover any problems, while identifying a teacher to help the girl with any school work related issues. They also assist the family in identifying the closest clinic, facilitate parenting workshops, provide HIV and AIDS education within the family, and identify other children in the household so as to assist the family to provide support and emotional care to these children. Once there is no longer need for intervention and the family has a wide support network around them, Khayalethu staff take a step back and allow the normal structures of family and community to take their place. If any help is ever needed the children and families are always welcome at Khayalethu for advice and assistance.
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Community Family Preservation Program
The community team aims to encourage family preservation so that children in high risk communities do not turn to the streets. They develop and maintain relationships with community leaders so that appropriate services can be provided while advocating for the needs of children and youth within the community. Staff advocate for children’s rights, by initiating workshops for community leaders and parents to educate all child and youth development and their needs. The community drop-in centres create a safe space within the community for children, youth and families to come to receive services. The team coordinates programs to provide counselling and emotional support to parents and children, material assistance where needed (food, clothing etc), assistance with acquiring documentation and grants, sports and recreational activities, homework supervision, life orientation program and spiritual development activities.
They also develop and nurture education and school relationships, advocate at schools for children to be registered, educate families on appropriate relationships to be maintained with schools, inform teachers of the needs of these families, as well as educating families around the process to follow if they are unable to pay school fees.
To assess strengths and weaknesses in the families, the community team make home visits to families. They offer counselling and emotional support for the household and bring food parcels when needed, aid in conflict resolution and mediate on behalf of the children where there is a need for them to be cared for by extended family. Literature on HIV/AIDS is also distributed during home visits.
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Intensive Intervention Program
The aim of the intensive intervention program is to provide intensive services to individual cases as they come up. This is done to help eliminate diversion of staff in the programs that they serve, and to ensure proper services are offered. Each program refers demanding cases to the Intensive Intervention program so thorough intervention services can be offered to children with very sensitive issues.
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