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.

Church is South Africa

This morning, I went to church here in Durban. When we visited McCords Hospital earlier in the week, I met Dr. Jay Mannie who is a Christian. When asked about a Christian church in Durban, he invited me to his church, which is part of the Reformed Church in Africa.

It was so good just to walk up to the service as the music was so familiar; it felt like home. There were a group of young people visiting the church who were on a mission trip from Ireland. The reality of the enormity of “the church” was simply wonderful to enjoy.

After Church, Dr. Mannie offered to bring us back to the hotel, take us out to lunch, or take us to a lunch at a rural orphanage. The social worker in all of us compelled us to go to the orphanage. it was an amazing experience

The Opening Session

This being the week of Nelson Mandela’s 90’s birthday, we together sang “Happy Birthday” to Mandeba (a term of honor to acknowledge the great work that one has been called to do since birth.) This followed the national anthem, of course, of South Africa.

I say, of course, because I am in South Africa, but I have to admit that I have found my world to be very small and very centered around my own experience. I don’t think that I am unusual in this, but I do think that by having traveled now, that I am more aware of it than I ever could have been otherwise.

The main keynote speaker was a 10 year old boy, Anfani Okosun, who is a second year Mechanical Engineering student at Purdue University. His topic was “Transforming Global Trends: The Challenging Role of Social Work.” I have to confess that I only understood a small portion of his one hour speech. I can’t even say that language was an issue as he was raised in the USA.

Then came the most moving speaker - a young man who lived on the streets of Durban, pleading for respect, to be seen as an individual. Probably not as impressive, but much more powerful.