The Women’s Shelter

After going to the Phoenix Center, we went over to a home that they operate. This is used for women (and their children, if needed) who are seeking safety. It is also where they care for infants who are “in the system”.

The day that we visited, there was a little girl who was being given up for adoption by her mom. In South Africa, a mothers has 60 days to reconsider their decision to give a baby for adoption. They don’t place the child in with the adoptive family until after this period has passed; they have had some devastating experiences including a case where the mom changed her mind at day 59, long after the baby was placed with the adoptive family. In this baby’s case, her dad had not yet signed so there were still some obstacles to be overcome as well.

There was another baby there who was less than a week old who had been abandoned in the bathroom of a hospital. There is a waiting list for people to adopt infants so as soon as some paperwork is completed, she’ll be matched with a family. There were three other children in this home that day. They were there seeking refuge with their mother.

They were all such precious children; it is hard to imagine where they would be were it not for this safe-house.

The Phoenix Child Welfare Agency

This was an amazing place. The work they do (or are committed to do) is just overwhelming. The Phoenix community within Durban is a historically Indian Community of about 800,000 people. This agency is “contracted” with the government to handle all adoptions of abandoned and orphaned children. The Agency also has responsibility for these services in two neighboring communities that include about 1K-2K people each. In addition, they do child protective services for the area and all foster care. The only exception being that they don’t do foster care for children over 10 with behavior issues; those are handled by the state. They also run group programs designed to education on issues related to abuse. They get into the schools and also run a teen program. All of this is done by 12 social work positions.

As we have observed in other settings, there is no way to really control the work that social workers do here. The Phoenix center has their office in the community where they serve so they have a lot of “walk-ins.” Once again, the caseload is often not as it appears and it seems that you tend to serve the needs of the family as a whole.

Add to large caseloads (120 or so per worker), this is a private agency which is only funded 70% through state support. They need to do fund raisers in order to be able to make it through the year. The nature of these fund raisers is simply amazing; the biggest fundraiser they do is a fair that runs for nine days, including two weekends. Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this event, on one Sunday they have a party for the Children where children get in free. At the 2008 event, there were 2,000 children who showed up! In addition, they a Senior day for the older members of the community. An this isn’t their only event. I don’t know how they do their job and have the time to volunteer to make these events happen. This makes the foster parent appreciation dinner that I helped with look like a afternoon tea!