The Orphanage

When we arrived, I was introduced to Cindy, the one who had opened her home to the wounded children in the neighborhood. Currently, in her two bedroom home she lives with the 32 children for whom she cares. In 2004, she didn’t start out with the intention of opening her home to so many children, but as time went on, the need was so great.

This home was discovered by the daughter of a leader in the local church when she was interning giving immunizations in this community. Most of the children were running away from violently abusive homes. Today, I learned that there are over 500,000 rapes reported in South Africa each year. That is about 1 in 100 people, many children.

Cindy has been trying to support these children on her own. She cannot generally get a foster care grant for the children because she needs the "permission" of their parents who are often the perpetrators or or protecting the perpetrators. She can no longer work as she needs to be at home to care for the children and to protect them from predators who live very near to her house. As a matter of fact, one of the girls (her daughter, I think) was raped by the man next store; she is now infected with HIV.

This is a desperate situation, but not without hope. The church has committed to work with Cindy to help where possible. She is waiting to see if the government will provide a different home for her and the children, where they will be more safe from their predators.