Care for Kids families receive especially designed bunk beds from Shoebox Homes

"I thank God that He brought us beds because I was sleeping on the floor and I was not happy at all, now that beds are here at home, I'm happy. Thank you." These words from one of the children who received a nested bunk bed from Shoebox Homes during September express the gratitude for a good night's sleep on one's own proper bed, something many Cape Tonians take for granted. Shoebox Homes creatively design bunk bed units for overcrowded, cramped homes and approached Care for Kids earlier this year with the offer to provide five bunk beds for families most in need. With overcrowding and poverty that leads to multi-bedding (numerous members of a household sharing one bed) so rife, the Care for Kids team were faced with the unenviable task of deciding who of their 338 families needed the nested beds the most.

"What came to the fore during this time was how huge the problem of overcrowding in homes that care for orphaned children actually is with adults and children, brothers and sisters all sleeping in one bed," says Erica Greathead, Programme Co-ordinator. The Care for Kids team began the challenging assessment process in partnership with the Orphan Action Teams in the five churches, namely; St Andrews in Elsies River, St Columba in Gugulethu, Eluvukweni in Crossroads, God's Family Church in Khayelitsha, and Church of Christ in Khayelitsha. They went through the lists of nearly 600 children supported by Care for Kids and found between two and four families in each church community that fitted the various criteria of both Care for Kids and Shoebox Homes. Much time was spent in prayer before and after visiting the potential recipient families trying to find the most desperate in an ocean of need. "The process required God's wisdom, because in our own wisdom how could we decide who needed it more than others when a lot of the families we support share a common level of need?" says Abigail, "So we asked the Lord to help us in our selection and He really did. Based on our prayer times we discerned together which of the two or more families per church were the right ones for this opportunity."

One of the carers of five children needed to extend her shack in order to accommodate the nested beds, but doing so was well worth it, according to Thuli* who says, "I thank God for this wonderful work He has done for me. I did not believe that I was going to receive beds, especially when they asked me to extend my shack for the sake of the beds." The Care for Kids Community Worker supported the family as they sought to complete their side of the deal by increasing the size of their home.

Another carer who has opened her home to five children, Susan*, has struggled with the consequences of increased pressure, both emotional and financial. She was selected to receive the nested bunk bed and it has made a huge impact on her life already, just two weeks later. Care for Kids Social Worker Abigail Fehrsen explains, "Up until now two of the children were sleeping in the same bed as the granny, one in bed with Susan, and the 10 and 12 year old boy and girl had to share a bed too. It was not a very healthy situation. But now they each have their own bed."

The excitement and anticipation as the children waited for the beds to be installed was tangible. And the gratitude from the carers, overwhelming and humbling. "It's much more than a bed to these women," says Abigail, "One of the things that has become very clear in seeing the response of the families to the beds, is the sense of significance and worth that they represent, as well as the sentiment that they are not completely alone in this challenge of caring for so many children in a tough economic climate."

Quotable quotes:

"The beds brought great joy to my heart. I always walk around and feel this warmth and great joy and wonder 'What is this feeling of joy that I have?' and then I would suddenly remember .. Oh, it's those beds!" Carer

Note from Erica Greathead (Programme Co-ordinator)

The number of churches that form part of the Care for Kids Progamme has now grown to ten with the inclusion of AFM Du Noon in October. There are 68 volunteers in these churches who support 594 children and 338 carers. 262 children are receiving monthly grant support, which averages 26 per church. Last year the average was 30 per month per church. This reduction is because children are now able to access grants without an ID document and it only takes three months before the grant is issued.

Since the inception of Care for Kids it has become increasingly apparent that many of the children end up unemployed and not studying after finishing school. A needs assessment process indicated that the children have no role models or mentors who understand how to access work or further studies. The children are not encouraged to use their initiative and take the information that is given at school and apply this to their own career journey. A workshop process called Career Start was developed to help Grade 12 learners plan and prepare for their future. The workshops were held during the July school holidays in two communities and children from four churches were identified and invited to apply to attend. The application process was done to ensure that only those who were interested would attend and of the 25 children who were invited, 17 attended.

It has become clear that there is a great need to develop Career Start into a programme that targets children who are at school to strengthen their subject choice, provide better access to relevant information pertaining to future education and personal development, and to provide support as they begin to enter the job market. As the Care for Kids Team was recognising the need for this new programme God was mobilising two people within the Parish who approached The Warehouse to set up an identical programme. Our prayer is that God will provide the start up funds to get the programme off the ground.

Two years ago we submitted an application for an Edutainer to Starfish Greathearts for St Columba, to help the church cope with their limited space. A prefabricated building was used for church meetings, HIV+ Support Groups and the Care for Kids activities, which was proving difficult to manage. Thanks to the hard work of Janet Mackay from Starfish the Edutainer was delivered in July. This has been a great blessing to the church and the children and has resulted in the volunteers planning more activities for the children in the New Year.

Within the staff team the main focus has been the training and mentoring of the new team members. Patricia Tafeni and Thami Minya, the Community Workers who were employed in July, have undergone an intensive in-house skills development programme and it's been exciting to see the growth of both these ladies as they take on new responsibilities. Pat Burgess has taken over the administration role with great gusto and while I was on two-month sabbatical made sure that all the reports were submitted to the relevant funders. The discovery of her writing skills has enabled me to hand over the report writing to her, which frees me up to take a more strategic role. Mzwabantu Magadla has been spending time building relationships with our partner pastors, both old and new. His new role is helping to cement the relationships between the churches and The Warehouse in general and has resulted in ten new churches that want to start Care for Kids projects next year. Please pray for us as we discern what God is calling us to do.

Thank you for your ongoing support and prayer.

Blessings, Erica Greathead

Did you know?

The SA Index of Multiple Deprivation of Children (Census 2001, HSRC Press) reports that:

• 81% of children in SA show income and material deprivation
• Over 50% experience employment deprivation (nobody in the household is working)
• 24% experience education deprivation meaning they are in the wrong grade for their age