Skip to main content

Pressure in the Children's Home

A couple of weekends ago I spent almost the whole weekend at Jakaranda Childrens Home in Pretoria, South Africa. Friday evening I watched my family members participate at the TTA Development Tournament that was hosted there, and Saturday I cooked about 17kgs of boerewors for boerewors rolls (hot-dogs).  There is a development program for the Children's Home kids called Defend with Integrity.

On Friday evening I watched the kids participate, and on Saturday I saw them outside the hall. Some were participating in the Taekwondo tournament, some were playing rugby in the open area and there was one or two that was hanging around the braai and pancake area.

It took a lot of self control not to give in to the emotional manipulation, to dish out boerewors rolls. But it was not easy, these are children, that do not have much. These are children that probably envy those that have a family and a stable house to live in. These are children that are put together in a house, to grow up away from their family for their own safety.

 But these children also have a sword hanging over their heads! As soon as they finish school or turn 18 years of age, they have to leave the children's home. Imagine being in you final year of school, having to contend with the pressures of final exams, and then to worry about where to stay, what to do, and where to get money to study if they could. Or what would happen when they return home. For me the pressure would be too much.

 Thinking about this a couple of days later, it suddenly dawned on me that I am / was in a similar situation as a child. Let me explain.
My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was in Grade 7 (std 5), my senior year in primary school, and she died later that year. My dad remarried a year later and we moved to the farm where my step-family lives.

 However the next year, 16 months after my mom passed away, my dad had a stroke and passed away ... on my brother's 21st birthday. (not much of a birthday). And suddenly, although it did not feel like it to me, my sister and I were orphaned. We were living in a house with 5 other kids that did not really understand us, and our teachers compared us in class as if we were supposed to be twins. But my step-mom really tried to make it easy on us, to make us family and make us settle in. And we got to love her as mom. But it was not home, it was not familiar (not really). 

 And just like the kids in the children's home, I left when I was 18. I went to report for my National Service and after the 2 years I joined the Defense Force as a Permanent Force member.After that I only went to visit my mom, I never really went back 'home'. Where was home anyway?

 But I took the opportunities I had and made the best of it, at least I could enter the Defense Force for National Service and then decide what I wanted to do. Today's kids do not have that luxury,if they do not go to study, they have to fend for themselves, find a job, do something, or land on the street. This make a lot of the Children's Home kids survivors, making do with what they have and make sure that they can survive, by whichever way. I really feel for those kids, they have been dealt a bad hand early in live, and then it may happen again when they leave school.

 So what are they going to do after school? I am sure that there are an organization to cater for a gap year, an preparation year, but ... What are we going to do about it? Can we do anything about it? Any ideas?







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Every day you are beaten

I came across this post from Bryan Ward this morning: Every day you are beaten :  Beaten by the leaky sink you keep avoiding. Beaten by the applesauce on the wall you keep not scrubbing off. Beaten by the dent in the drywall you keep putting off fixing. You long to conquer mountains, yet every day you are beaten by molehills. All these little problems… they should be so easily solved. Yet they go on defeating you, day after day, until at last you conclude that you are not a capable man: If you are this easily defeated, “surely” you do not have what it takes to win the bigger fights: to become your fittest self, to create a business empire, to create works of art that will outlast you. Hell, you can’t even fix a leaky sink: might as well f*** off and go watch TV. But you’ve misdiagnosed the problem entirely. … One summer day when I went into the workshop, I saw that the plastic gas cans by the tractor were bulging like balloons. I had left the vents closed, and the heat of
Post a Comment
Read more

Life's values .... or Character

I practice Sonhahm Taekwondo. One of the goals of the ATA is to instill certain life skills in the students, and in so doing build their character. At the beginning of each class or event we recite a declaration or oath. To me, the declarations we make, is also about how we should conduct ourselves as people in everyday life. I have spent a long time in the Defense Force and as a young officer we were taught the skills of Courtesy, Loyalty and Respect. I just wish that we can teach these same skills to the public at large. I am seeing and experiencing the lack of courtesy, loyalty, respect, integrity and self-control that the people have around me. People of a non-profit group being outright rude, children being rude to their parents, senior (in rank but junior in age) people being rude to juniors (in rank but senior in age). What happened to common decency, courtesy, and respect? We do not have self-control, and we do not teach our children self-control and even th
Post a Comment
Read more

The heresy of worshiptainment | Mike Livingstone

The heresy of worshiptainment | Mike Livingstone : "More recently, David Platt has asked: “What if we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs? What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated? What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts are removed? Would His Word still be enough for his people to come together?” (Radical)"
Post a Comment
Read more