Finally, some hope for an orphaned girl

In a country of countless orphans and abandoned children, where sorrow and tragedy are the daily staple, the story of 12-year-old Lebogang Mokoka is enough to break even the hardest of hearts.

She has been regularly taken home by temporary foster parents Bella and Nathaniel Ramahutswa since she was two.

She has been living at the Rays of Hope Child and Youth Care Centre in Alexandra, Johannesburg, after she was abandoned at birth.

But, much as Bella and Nathaniel want to adopt the child and give her a loving, stable family home, they have been unable to do so for more than 10 years.

They say they have been sent from pillar to post because, allegedly, the child care centre does not have the necessary professional capacity in the field of foster care and adoption.

This is, clearly, a gaping gap in our social protection legislation: when a non-profit organisation does not have capacity itself, surely it should be able to call on government centres which do?

Hopefully, now that the centre has appointed a qualified social worker, the Ramahutswas will finally be able to adopt Lebo and call her their own.

And, one day, she can go home with them … forever.

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