Working with Little Children

I've spent 4 mornings so far working at the Aurora Special Care Centre. There are 8 children in the classroom I'm in and they're all about preschool/kindergarden aged - at least that's what they look like to me. Each day has been a bit different because they do various classroom activities every morning. For instance, this morning we were supposed to do hydro therapy but the pool's heater is broken so we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Aurora is in a very nice part of PE - looks like any other upper-middle class neighborhood to me - which makes sense as it's a private care centre and hospital as well.

Basically what I'm doing at Aurora is provide childcare in the mornings for these kids. I look after, feed, play with and change them, which sounds fairly easy. But, all of the kids are severly disabled. Raechel has cerebral palsy, so she stays in her wheelchair most of the time. She can talk quite clearly and is a bit easier to interact with than some of the others. However, she doesn't always communicate - much of the time, she's just looking around the room. Since she can't walk on her own, she does some physio work every day. I have no idea what she does there. Christiano, Clive, and Fudhail are 3 others who can't walk solo, so they also have physio. Christiano wasn't able to walk at all, but he had surgery on his legs and gets around while strapped into a large, blue, walker-type contraption. It seems he really likes being able to get around on his own.
Clive was a totally normal kid but he drowned. After they revived him, he sustained brain damage. I don't know what's going on with Fudhail, but when he came to Aurora 2 months ago, he was basically a blob. But now, he's sitting up on his own, trying to talk, and pushes his own wheelchair around the room.
Liyema is the other kid who has problems walking, but that's because she has very bad balance. She was born pre-maturely and it looks like she's had brain surgery. She'll run around the room, playing with the toys and stuff - she'll just stumble and trip a bit. The other 3 in the class - Chelsea, Mihle, and Phumelela- are very abled compared to the others in that they can go and do stuff on their own, but they tend to just play on their own and not really respond when I try to interact with them.

So far, my favorite time with them is play time because that's when I get to tickle them or fly them around the room or monster attack them or just play with their toys a bit. Liyema, Clive, and Christiano are the most responsive to this. They're also the most affectionate ones it seems.

In contrast, I've also spent one day at the AIDS Haven (I called it Safe Haven, but that was wrong). There's about 30 kids in total there, ranging from infants to age 13, but there's only 1 that old. About 75% of them have HIV and the place is essentially an orphanage. But it's not that all of the kids' parents are dead. A lot of the kids were abandoned at the hospital when they were born. For others, their parents simply can't take care of them. A lot of the kids have been there since birth and this is the only home they know.

In the morning, 2 other girls and I looked after the 11 preschool aged kids, while the other 2 guys in our group mopped up the preschool building after a tap was left running over night. We spent 3 hours with them, but after just 2 I was exhausted. The kids were all very energetic, loving, and sweet. Therewas only one who was shy. The other people in my group said that he didn't talk or play that much, but he was crying when we first got there, so I picked him up. After a while he stopped and went off to play a bit. A while later, he called over to me, "Mama!" and said something in gibberish. He wanted me to play with him on and off throughout the morning, but whenever he cried, I'd pick him up and he'd cuddle into me and stop.

Some of the others toddlers would call me and the other girls "mama" as well. I have no idea where they got that from, but it's very strange, a bit overwhelming, and really touching to hear that from a kid I've only known for an hour.

In addition to the little kids, there's about 15-20 elementary school-aged kids who started arriving home between 1:30 and 2 and we played with them for the rest of the afternoon. Some of them would sit down and play cards, others would just run around, and a lot of them asked for my cell phone, which I didn't bring here. But, if I had, I would not be giving it to them. One of the guys had brought his ipod and speakers and the kids just wanted to listen to Michael Jackson. Some of them could actually do some of his dance moves, which surprised me a bit. All in all, they're great, sweet kids and I'm so glad I'll get to spend a lot more time with them.


The AIDS Haven does take good care of these kids - they're feed well, clothed properly, and have a clean place to sleep. However, nappies (diapers) are very limited and the caretakers are reluctant to say the least about changing the kids. Usually, a kid has to sit in a dirty diaper for about an hour before a caretaker will change them. It's not a good situation in terms of nappies. Also, the place is running out of money. They think they'll close down in a few months. I have no idea where the kids are going to go when that happens. I think someone said they would just go into foster care, but I'm not sure how that works in SA. But I do know that these kids all deserve a proper, loving home.