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Through its Basket of Services project, the
City is helping its many child-headed households with food, education and
health care.
SOME 700 children in Joburg live in
child-headed families; and the City of Johannesburg
is determined to do something about this.
It has investigated these families and
their circumstances and has drawn up programmes to support the children,
through its Basket of Services project.
Libraries offer homework assistance
Among the programmes on offer, according to
the assistent director: human development overseeing the Orphan and Vulnerable Children Unit, Nkele Moumakwa,
are a food programme, homework assistance, and career advice. Also part of the Basket of Services are recreational, life skills and primary health programmes, and educational support.
Through the City's initiative, Orphan and Vulnerable Children forums have been set up in the seven regions to coordinate the services offered to child-headed households by various civil society organisations. Together, the City and various organisations identify the children's needs and develop individual plans for each household.
One of those organisations is Uncedolwethu,
meaning "our help", in Thulamntwana, in Region G - in the south of Johannesburg. The
organisation was founded in 2002 and today it takes care of 215 children in the
Thulamntwana and Sweet Waters communities.
"We started with TB- and HIV-positive people.
Unfortunately, most of these people die and we then have to take care of the
children left behind," said Thuli Zwane, the founder of the organisation.
Education
The City has implemented programmes that help these children with their
education, including the homework assistance programme at all City libraries. "The
programme helps the children cope with educational requirements by giving
educational support and making information available," says Moumakwa.
It works hand-in-hand with the information literacy
project that guides the children in the use of library tools and the internet. Grade
11 and 12 learners from child-headed households attended a career expo
organised by the human development directorate in partnership with Career
Incorporation in Orlando East on 29 and 30 April 2009.
Looking at job opportunities
Other programmes include the Soweto Jobs Fair,
the last one of which took place in September 2008. Learners from grades 10 to
12 were able to speak to City officials and representatives from other
employers regarding potential career paths.
Some initiatives include Take a Child
to Work, learnership programmes for learners who pass matric and a pilot farming
project.
Departments that have hosted the children
for these programmes include the department of human development, revenue and
customer services, Johannesburg Tourism, Johannesburg
metropolitan police department and the youth unit of the Johannesburg Fresh
Produce Market (JFPM).
The City also referred 13 children to Boston College's
Operation Job Creation, which includes marketing and administration, and
another two were referred to Liberty Life Learnership.
Basket of Services does not come without
its challenges, however. One of these challenges is that children drop out of
school, citing reasons such as lack of finances, illness, poor academic
performance and having the responsibility of raising their siblings.
Some children are in tertiary education,
but most who pass Grade 12 end up either unemployed or doing part-time jobs. In
places like Thulamntwana, sadly, most children do not have access to
information about these programmes.
Rutendo Gana, a caregiver in Thulamntwana, says
that most of these children do not have identity documents, making it
impossible for them to get social grants. And with no financial assistance,
most drop out of school.
One of the initiatives is a pilot farming project
Those who do pass their matric end up
staying at home because they do not know where they can get help to further
their studies or get jobs, she says.
But some still dream. "I want to be a
doctor. My mother used to say she would love to see me becoming a doctor," says Lungile.
Health
Most of the children are healthy but a significant number have medical
problems. These include eye infections, tonsillitis and HIV/Aids. Health is
another challenge for the children who are unwell as not all the necessary
medication is available at the local clinic.
Katlego, a 19-year-old from Sweet Waters, stays
with her 21-year-old sister and Lerato, her five-year-old sister. Lerato is HIV-positive and is taking
anti-retrovirals. Her sisters can only
get her medication from Chris
Hani Baragwanath
Hospital; when they do
not have money to get to the hospital, Lerato does not take her medication. It
is vital not to interrupt an infected person's anti-retroviral routine.
Food
The City runs a food programme for poor
households, and the priority is child-headed households. "The directorate of human development has a lease agreement with JFPM to
provide vegetable packages to these households on a monthly basis to augment what the (other) organisations are already providing," says Moumakwa.
Pamela Majobela, a caregiver in
Thulamntwana, adds: "The children do get the vegetable package every month but
still need to get other foods like mealie meal from donors."
Fourteen year-old Lungile from Thulamntwana
is the oldest in his family. He lives
with 12-year-old Sibusiso and seven year-old Anele. Their mother passed away
in 2007, and Lungile has had to take care of his siblings since then.
During school holidays he sells oranges for a local hawker, which helps him raise money for food.
On school days, children go the
Uncedolwethu Projects at seven in the morning to have breakfast.
Legal documents
When their mother died, Katlego and her 21-year-old sister had not applied for
their identity documents yet. This means they cannot get jobs or apply for
their younger sister's social grant.
The City is now looking for ways to help
these children get their identity documents, which will open more avenues for
them. "We will partner with Home Affairs and go to these communities to help
these children get the documents that they need," Moumakwa explains.
* The names of the children have been changed to protect their identities.
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