ETHELBERT Child and Youth Care Centre works in close collaboration with community workers in Burlington Heights.
The area is generally considered an extremely poor community where the majority of the residents are unemployed, live either in shanties or in RDP housing and exist below the breadline. Director of Ethelbert Centre, Vanessa Theophilus, said often such conditions result in cases of child abuse and neglect.
“Research shows that poverty and the lack of basic needs can be one of the influences of child abuse. Child abuse can include neglect, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and abandonment,” she said.
According to Theophilus, since poverty and deprivation play a significant role in the neglect and maltreatment of children, the whole environment in which the child lives must be considered in any attempt to reduce the affect it has on the child. This includes the family, the community, the economy, the affordability of basic foodstuffs and accessibility to employment.
This year, the Afrisun Community Development Trust assisted the cause by providing monthly food parcels to feed 50 families in Burlington Heights. Ethelbert Centre has been working in partnership with Valencia Martin, a community worker, to distribute these parcels to the most needy and vulnerable.
“There are many people living in poverty here. I alternate the distribution of the food parcels to the elderly, orphans, single parent families, families suffering from poverty and unemployed. It is only with the generous assistance from entities such as Afrisun that households in this community can have at least one meal a day, as there are many school-going children that don’t have food for up to three days,” Martin explained.
The objective behind Ethelbert Centre’s community service is to reduce poverty and hunger in the local poor communities so that, ultimately, children are able to stay with their families rather than being placed in alternate care such as Ethelbert Centre.
“It is far better for a child’s emotional well being when they are able to stay with their family. Being separated from their home to be placed in a child and youth care centre can be very traumatic for children as they feel that they have been abandoned by their family. This can manifest itself in many different ways such as anger, abandonment issues, antisocial behaviour and can affect their academic prowess,” Theophilus explained.
If you would like to contribute towards our monthly food parcels to the neediest families in Burlington Heights, contact Gaylene on 031 464 6555 or e-mail pro@ethelbert.co.za.
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