Leading up to the 16 Days of Activismn 2016: The children nobody wants, a systemic child rights failure.

 A 14 year old girl needs a home, a residential care facility, someone to care for her. No child and youth care centre, no foster home wants her and attorneys advocating for the child are seeking a high court order to compel at least one institution to take her in and develop a permanent care plan for her. The girl entered the care system at the age of two and has been raped on numerous occasions since the age of 4. She was placed in a series of children’s and foster care homes, all of which failed to deal with her behavioural problems which include sexual promiscuity. She has not been to school for years and has no family or guardian to protect her interests.

Moira Simpson, founder and Director of the Kids Haven, a child and youth care centre in Benoni, has the following to say about the problems facing social workers and other professionals trying to find appropriate care and therapeutic intervention for this child and many others whose exposure to horrific and ongoing abuse since early childhood has left them with deep emotional and psychological wounds which in turn express themselves in what is referred to in professional jargon as ‘conduct disorders’, or ‘anti-social behavior’.

“It is one thing working with children on an outpatient basis, and totally another working with them in residential care. Children with anti-social personalities and conduct disorders and/or those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, are difficult to place because no matter what you try you fail to reach them. So everyone rejects the problematic child to avoid admitting the seriously damaged child, and then when things get tough being told ‘it is your child, deal with them’ when they do not cope.’ It would be better not to label them ‘conduct disorder’; because once this label has been affixed the children have no chance of being accepted by anyone.

In fact, the system is not working for these children at all and children are repeatedly failed by parents, families, foster care settings, the community, society, and education. Most children have multiple placements that break down. The whole system needs to be re-thought.

Some of the children need to be assigned a capable adult around the clock. At any one time four adults may be needed to contain, manage, and care for one child, including security personnel. It could take a whole team of professionals to attend to the needs of this one child. Resources get stretched, as they smash windows, toilets, doors, let off fire extinguishers, cut CCTV camera, break TV’s, light fittings, and much more. 

Worse than this is what they are capable of doing to staff and other children. In the past there were always a few extremely problematic children who would fall through the cracks and land up in jail, but now there are huge numbers of severely disturbed children needing specialized and resource-intensive interventions with barely any services available for them. Far too many of these children also have cognitive deficits and most of these require permanent long term care, as will never be able to function independently.  But there is nowhere for them to go. Child care organizations are collapsing under the strain, and going to the high court to force them to take the children could be the final straw for them.

Everybody has a different standard of what difficult behaviour is. Some children described as ‘monsters’ are just acting out at the neglect, abuse and trauma they are experiencing, and with proper care and intervention are able to heal and thrive beyond expectation. For others the damage is too deep.

Kids Haven tries to give all children a chance, but would like the system to allow us to ‘give the child back to go deeper into the system’ if we find we cannot meet the child’s needs, and often this need to be immediate, after a serious incident. If it turns out that that one child is single handedly destroying the organisation, we need to be able to say no. If we are not able to give them back at this point, KH will also have to be more careful about the children we admit in the future, and unfortunately some children we would have reached will lose out.

 I am sure other organisations would be more willing to accept a child if they knew there was some recourse should they not cope. But again, at what level would that be?

The child being removed needs some form of intensive and secure care. At the moment children have to commit a crime, face arrest and conviction before there is any effort at getting them “deeper into the system.” Could we not spare our most damaged children this additional ordeal and get them into specialized and contained care settings long before it reaches this point?”

The JCAF Team

Xenophobia through the eyes of children of the inner city of Johannesburg

TRAUMA DEBRIEFING GROUP SESSION                                              21 APRIL 2015

ISSUE: XENOPHOBIA (Violence and Attacks)

The session was done with the inner-city children who come to our center (JPCCC) for boxing at the gym and the Life Skills programme on a weekly basis after school hours. As we know that Johannesburg city consists of many immigrants from different countries in Africa such as Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, DRC, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria, etc. who come to South Africa to find a better life. The inner-city population is diverse and multicultural including people from various places or provinces across South Africa to also find a better life. It is a place where everyone comes from their homes of origin, the city of gold, to dwell in the inner city to find jobs and make a living. Some people decide to work while others decide to start businesses, create jobs and feed many by providing for their families. The inner-city children are enrolled in many different schools in the city which are diverse, multicultural and multilingual.

These children walk to school together, play with one another and live in the same neighborhood. This is just a background to have an understanding of where these children come from. The issue was noted in the gym during their training session as the older boys spoke about Xenophobia and appeared to be affected by the xenophobic violence and attacks taking place in the inner-city.

In the session we had with the children, we first asked them their understanding of the concept Xenophobia. Some of the responses which were stated are the following: “Extreme hatred of foreign nationals; unreasonable dislike of people from other countries; people killing others to get out of their country”. This process was very intense and uncomfortable.

There’s a myth about the Zulu men killing people and burning foreign nationals by putting petrol, bombs and lighters. Another myth which emerged throughout the session is Nigerians sending Boko Haram soldiers to South Africa to kill all South Africans and bomb the country. This indicates the fear of the consequences of xenophobic attacks and violence. These children also expressed fear of what could happen next, they appeared to be concerned about what will happen next.

The group consisted of both local and immigrant children and it was overwhelming as a facilitator to be caught into the situation. Many immigrant children expressed anger, pain and fear for their own lives and the lives of their family and friends. They expressed their anger by stating how xenophobic violence and attacks are affecting businesses, the country’s reputation and the economy. Laziness and crime was stated as a cause of xenophobia according to some of the children. They expressed that people who come to South Africa work very hard and create jobs for many people and Zulu men think they are stealing their jobs, but in reality they are actually lazy. One of the boys stated that: “I blame the Zulus and I feel bad because they are taking advantage of the situation, thugs too to get some money because they are lazy to do any job’. Another important theme which stood out was that these children’s school teachers are trying to campaign against xenophobia and encouraging all the children in the school to be against it and stop it. Even though the children felt that it was not enough. 

Reflections on the hidden face of Xenophobia and effects on women and children of the inner city of Johannesburg

Reflections of the Hidden Face of Xenophobia

1.       In my view xenophobia presents itself in many ways- only one of which usually draws the attention of the media and of state officials. This is the overt violence and looting which we have seen over the past two weeks, resulting in serious injury and death, and making headlines all over the world, which then galvanizes some level of action on the part of the governmental and non-governmental sector.

2.       The hidden face of xenophobia, on the other hand, shows itself mainly to women and children in

·         The intimacy of their living spaces- perpetrated mainly in the forms of ongoing threats by SA neighbours and co-tenants

·         In schools- perpetrated both teachers and learners, but also more subtly in the adoption of (illegal) exclusionary practices

·         In health care facilities in which medical and clerical staff refuse to treat foreigners, often openly utter xenophobic threats, and/or make access to health care impossible by (illegally) charging huge amounts of money

·         The social media through which un-confirmed rumours and threats are spread like wildfire, seemingly planned and intended to frighten foreign nationals into either complete resignation and paralysis or a determination to leave- in effect, this is “murder by whatsapp”.

·         The harassment of women informal traders by both the metro police and SA customers

3.       Women and children are particularly vulnerable to this hidden face of xenophobia because they have already been multiply traumatized by violence in their home countries as well as in South Africa. The exposure to repeated and/or ongoing trauma has a cumulative effect on cognitive functioning and when subjected to threats (even if these are never carried out) a cognitive and emotional paralysis sets in which then makes it impossible for victims to rationally assess threats and explore reasonable ways of protecting themselves. We see this especially in women and children who were victims of the 2008 xenophobic violence.  When confronted with the current violence and threats these mothers and their children lose all sense of agency, and feel that they have no option but to wait for death by gunshot, fire or knife.

4.       Most of the families we work with in the inner city are headed by single mothers whose only source of income is some kind of informal trading, mainly in the CBD. The xenophobic violence and the continuing threats of further violence result in women not feeling safe to continue trading and thereby losing the only source of income that secures the roof over the head- a roof which already shelters far too many people who cannot afford the rent for accommodation that provides them with at least a measure of dignity and protection. We expect that by the end of this month many more families will be homeless and very hungry as a direct result of xenophobic violence and threats.

5.       Xenophobic attitudes, threats and exclusionary practices in schools and health care facilities in effect remove the only (constitutionally mandated) spaces in which women and children can expect safety, protection and care. This means that women don’t get treated for manageable conditions such as diabetes for hypertension and that children’s progress at school is severely jeopardized. We have seen children being orphaned by conditions which could easily have been managed, and our high school learners tell us that if they miss an exam because of the violence on the streets in their homes, they are simply failed.

6.       These are just some of the effects of the hidden face of xenophobia. Each one of them obviously has serious long-term implications for the physical and emotional well-being of women and children in all spheres of life, and therefore the progress and well-being of our country, our continent and our world.

7.       We therefore appeal to all South Africans who are genuinely committed to social justice and the fight against xenophobia to look the hidden face of xenophobia straight into the eye, and to declare with their actions- here, too, in these intimate spaces of home, school, pavement trading, and health care, we shall uproot you, never to show yourself again.

Johanna Kistner

23 April 2015

A tribute to Johannesburg Child Welfare from R Primary for service excellence

Dear Supervisor

I hope you are well. 

I want to thank you and to tell you what a pleasure it has been dealing with your worker.  She is professional, dedicated and very reliable.  She is dealing with three families from my school and she has been superb.   She has taken over the X case and has been fantastic.  It is such a relief that she is looking after the children’s welfare and that she will ensure that they are no longer at risk.     

Thank you for allocating her to these cases.  She is an absolute gem!

Kind regards

Teacher 

Convenor Luke Lamprecht's reflections from Lefika La Phodiso (The Art Therapy Centre) Annual Report

ATC: ANNUAL REPORT INTRODUCTION 2013_2014

Luke Lamprecht

There is a level of irony in my writing the introduction to this work that is beyond words. I have been involved in some way at Lefika for the past 20 odd years. In all of that time I know what we do is essential, I also know that it is often wordless and housed in a very sacred place where people can express themselves as themselves. Expression is an important outlet for the challenges faced by our young democracy. Seeking to understand and make sense of our lives expressed through creative expression may ironically be paradoxical. Once we find words, do we lose the essence of what we are and are doing?  In the madness that sometimes feels ever present in South Africa, I am reminded of Picasso.

“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”

What do you see?

Don’t look, just feel. 

As for me…

I see a child who was given a brush that gave her a big smile. A child who was given a blank piece of paper and could make her mark. I see a child who was given paint and made colour dance on a page with wild abandon. I see the paint sing of the innocence that is a child’s natural state.

I see adults observing the joy and true nature of a child at play in a world they create and is not judged or constricted. A safe place to find themselves and be held by the adults present to witness their evolving creation.

I see THIS CHILD through their eyes as they emerge with paint and brush strokes singing and dancing from the page and I wonder,

“If your eyes could speak what would they say”? – The Book Thief.

My eyes would project the humility and pride that being witness to a child’s development can illuminate in the heart and soul of mindful adults and I would say…

Thank you.

Luke Lamprecht

“What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.” ~John Updike

Member Johanna Kistner's Poem on Inner City Work at SCPS AGM

Where angels fear to tread

Go, go where angels fear to tread

Because people are living there

Go where the pain is unspeakable

Go where the hopelessness is unbearable

Go to the last outposts where the hunger

For food and justice is an

Ever-present reality

Devouring the soul

Go to be overwhelmed,

Go to weep

For a beloved continent

Go and take with you your hearts

Your hands, your courage, your wisdom

Your imperfections and your love

Go, go where angels fear to tread

Because people are living there

Johanna Kistner

26 May 2014

Reflections from Sophiatown Community Psychological Serivces

1      THE JOHANNESBURG CHILD ADVOCAY FORUM

The Johannesburg Child Advocacy Forum faced some tough challenges in 2013. The number of children’s rights violations brought to the attention of the Forum either as individual cases or as concerns by member organizations struggling to attend to children’s needs in their separate capacities, was simply overwhelming.  The capacity to deal with so many children’s issues, all requiring urgent attention, is limited, and with emotions running high, it has been very difficult to prioritize areas of concern in which some form of advocacy intervention could have a reasonable level of impact.

An analysis of the Forum’s journal entries, conducted by Red Cherry Research at the end of the year, revealed that there were 218 case work related entries of which 61% were complex child abuse cases, most of these sexual abuse cases in the six to eight year old cohort. Other cases relate mainly to children in need of care who because of the disability or severe behavioural problems are particularly hard to place. More than half of these cases were managed by the founding organizations and or other close NGO partners.

A number of activities revolved around the implementation or development of child protection policies, ranging from the development of safety policy at local schools to campaigning (with other organization) at the level of national policy.

Press releases were made about specific cases of child abuse, shaken baby syndrome and male survivors of sexual abuse. This involved articles in the print media as well as participation in discussions on radio and television stations.

Advocacy processes are by nature long-term and their impact is dependent on a number of external variables, most notably the absence or presence of political will to make things happen. It is difficult to attribute to success or failure of an effort to any one intervention, group, or set of circumstances. With this in mind, we are however proud to have contributed to some important changes or improvements in policy, practice and/or in the practical everyday realities of children:

o   After years of campaigning for the closure of the Central Methodist Church as an illegal shelter where hundreds of women and children have been subjected to violence and abuse, the church is still open. However, it has lost its allure as the only viable sanctuary for Zimbabwean migrants, and even the women who could never conceive of making a life for themselves outside of the “protection” of the cult-like figure head, are now moving out with their children. Latest news is that the building will be closed by the end of the year

o   One illegal shelter into which families were encouraged to “abandon” their children for a fee, has been successfully closed down, and the children have been reunited with their caregivers

o   The Department of Social Development has committed itself to closing the crèche in the basement of the church, where babies are being exposed to highly unhygienic risks (raw sewage, no ventilation etc.) and finding alternative care of the children

o   Children who have suffered severe trauma as a result of sexual or other violence now cannot be denied immediate access to therapy on the grounds that such therapy would contaminate their evidence in court. This is an important court ruling which civil society organization, including JCAF campaigned for after a severely traumatized child was denied therapy for years while the court case against the alleged perpetrator dragged on.

o   Luke Lamprecht, the convenor of JCAF, has been actively involved in convening a successful conference on the “Back to Basics” of child protection which was attended by hundreds of social workers and others working on the coal face of child protection

o   Johanna Kistner has set new standards for the assessment of juvenile offenders after spending time with seven boys accused of raping a mentally disabled girl. In the context of extreme poverty and generalized family and community dysfunction, she raised the question in her report about “who is to be held accountable for the behaviour of our children.” She has since been asked to join the Legal Aid SA’s panel of experts

o   When a 11 year refugee old girl was refused treatment for epilepsy at the Johannesburg Hospital because she could not pay the R20 000 demanded by the hospital clerks and nursing staff, the senior medical staff to whom the matter was reported were so outraged that they organized themselves in protest and undertook to take the matter to the Human Right Commission. The child was eventually seen and provided with treatment free of charge as is her constitutional right. However, the matter of refugees being expected to pay outrageous amounts for access to health care is an issue we continue to fight with other organizations, including Section 27, a powerful advocacy organization that has already taken the state to court on a number of violations of constitutional rights.

A tough internal reflection and interrogation process among the founder members has set the agenda for more coordinated and selective approach to advocacy based on the priority areas of access to health, education and child protection services. We hope that this will be more effective in focusing limited human and financial resources on where we can realistically achieve the greatest impact.

A LOSS OF INNOCENCE

 At a recent JCAF meeting, the convenor, Luke Lamprecht used the term “loss of innocence” to capture the feelings of service providers in the current political and economic climate. We can, as counsellors, social workers, therapists, and community workers no longer draw on the assumption that the political and economic elites and decision-makers of our time, as well as their implementers lower down on the ranking scales of power, have the best interests of the most vulnerable and marginalized citizens at heart. Every attempt to get even the most basic (constitutionally mandated) services for our clients requires a massive amount of persuasive energy, threats of legal action, and even aggression, often with little or no results.

Nowhere is the loss on innocence more visible than on the streets of our city, in its overcrowded inner city dwellings, in the match box houses of the townships, and the crude shacks on abandoned pieces of ground. We started this report in a state of mourning, for Madiba, but more importantly for the many lives senselessly lost because of the lack of care and respect for children and other marginalized groups in our society.  In the week it has taken to complete this report a six year old child was killed by two eight year old school mates at break at a local primary school. Two teenage girls were found murdered in the veld, also in Soweto, and the boys arrested for their murder are a mere 16 years old. Twenty seven illegal miners, mostly desperate Zimbabweans died of carbon dioxide poisoning last Monday, after spending days underground in an abandoned mine shaft in Roodepoort, searching the morsels of gold left behind by the big mining companies. The authorities left it to the surviving miners and their relatives to extract the bodies as the rescue mission was deemed too dangerous.

Let us not forget that Nelson Mandela was not always an old man with an endearing smile and the serenity of forgiveness in his eyes. He was also once an angry youth, a professional outraged at the injustices of his time, an activist with fire in his heart. It is now for us to carry the flame forward in honour of those whose greatness died before it could be given credence, and even more importantly in celebration of the greatness, bursting to unfold, in each person, no matter how poor or vulnerable or marginalized or forgotten. Only then can we hope to recover our lost innocence.