THEMBALETHU CHILDREN’S HOME, A BRIEF BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT  
Thembalethu (Zulu for “our hope”) is a children’s home in the province of KwaZulu/Natal in South Africa. The home is open for orphans as well as for children with physical and/or mental handicaps. To keep the home open for children in need of care, regardless of the cause of the need, is the aim that created Thembalethu and has been its guideline since the start in 1984.

Thembalethu Children’s Home was jointly initiated by a Norwegian missionary, Ragnhild Södahl, a local Zulu church worker and Mr and Mrs Sarjou, Directors since the humble start 30 years ago. All the years the tie to Scandinavia has been strong. Funding and personal/spiritual support has come from public as well as private sources in Norway and Sweden, Strömmes Minnesfond being the main actor in the initial decade.

Thembalethu Children’s Home is situated on a farm some ten km outside of Harding, 70 km inland from Port Shepstone. It serves the districts of Ugu, including Port Shepstone, Harding, Kokstad and Izingolweni. This is a rural and poverty-stricken area with few job opportunities, a generally low standard of education, high illiteracy rate and a lack of health, welfare and recreational facilities.

Thembalethu has a Christian profile, basing its vision on the words of Jesus: Let the children come to me. There is, however, no organisational link to any specific church or denomination. Priests from the whole ecumenical family visit  the homeregularly. The vision is that the Christian faith should be rooted in hearts and expressed in deeds. Jesus Christ is the role model and the source of strength.

The consequences of years of colonial rule and apartheid system are still visible in South Africa and cause economic and social divisions among the people. The African people are generally under-privileged. This is particularly true and alarming in the case of the African rural areas, and even more conspicuously with orphans and children with handicaps in these areas. Poverty, lack of resources, low self-esteem, prejudice, illiteracy... all these factors make the situation of the children extremely difficult. The AIDS pandemic has added to the problems.


THE NEED
In southern Africa a disabled child is generally regarded as a shame, a disgrace to the family (similar to the Scandinavian way of looking at the “abnormal” a couple of generations ago). Children with mental or physical handicaps are therefore often left uncared for. Apart from these you have the destitute children, whose social network has ceased to function, and the so-called AIDS-orphans. This situation has to be seen in the social, cultural and economic context of South Africa, fifteen years after the fall of the Apartheid system.


THE TARGET GROUP AND THE OPERATION OF THEMBALETHU
It is with the above outlined background and context that Thembalethu Children’s Home is operating. The focus of Thembalethu is set on the most vulnerable and hardest hit group, the children. Without parents or sufficient support from other adults and/or with handicaps a sound development as a human being is next to impossible. Thembalethu wishes to give these children a home with human warmth where they can develop intellectually, spiritually, physically and socially - a place where they become responsible citizens of a democracy in development.  

In South Africa the rich and the poor – the First and the Third World – are literally neighbours, often only separated by a wall, just few inches thick and a couple of meters high. In the case of Thembalethu the conditions are Third World, as regards social and mental environment, material resources, possibilities of hiring staff with relevant occupation etc. This also seems to apply to the local and national governments’ possibilities and abilities to give financial support.

At present there are +/- 20 children/youngsters at the home. The ages range from toddlers to school leavers of approx. 20 years.

A homely atmosphere together with good schooling are regarded key conditions for the long-term development of the individual child. Most of the childre attend the local schools in the area. The remaining are either too young for school or prevented from schooling by their handicap. Some of them are multi handicapped, profoundly retarded with physical disabilities.

Thembalethu Welfare Society and its board are responsible for the children’s home. The daily work is organised by the Director James Sarjou and executed by approximately 30 staff members. The work includes the nurturing of children, cocking, cleaning, agriculture, administration etc.


DEVELOPMENT
Even in the future with a functioning re-integration programme one can foresee that the home will be needed during the re-integration process (realistically up to two years) as a “halfway house”. For the severely handicapped children/youngsters it will most certainly be necessary to live permanently in a set-up where they can be cared for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and where the infrastructure is
developed for the daily life, training etc.

Besides this, the vision is that Thembalethu develops into a resource for children in the Harding/-Izingolweni regions by developing the Youth and Community Centre, and by moving further into the fields of AIDS-intervention (education, counselling).


FINANCE
During Thembalethu’s  30 years of existence the state involvement has varied from next to nothing to great subsidies.  It is clear that for the sake of stability and for the ambition of rendering a high quality service to the target group, the financial situation must be clarified and strengthened with the aim of making it sustainable.

To gain income an agricultural project is running. This project brings income to the home as well as address one of the other biggest challenges in the region: unemployment.

Some of the supporters of Thembalethu Children’s Home:
- Department of Social Welfare Affairs
- Department of Public Works
- Friends of Thembalethu, Sweden
- National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund
- Nelson Mandela Children’s fund
- Neste Stopp, Norway
- Vinden Second Hand, Sweden
- Individuals


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