Many people are struggling to make ends meet. Even worse off are the very young children who have to find their way through a world they’re barely old enough to understand.
Sometimes things just go awry, and the sad truth is that some parents turn to narcotics for some or another reason.
Kyle Tolman operates the Cross Connect Community Outreach (CCCO) organisation in neighboring Krugersdorp which seeks to help thousands of adults and children on the West Rand every month, and regularly deals with horrible situations caused by drug abuse.
“The biggest thing we’re struggling with now is to find a safe place for children. Let me present this scenario: We have a family; a single mother and three children. The single mom and oldest daughter do drugs together. The two younger boys have nowhere else to go and they have no place to stay, so now they’re bouncing around. The kids are being affected so negatively that they haven’t been in school for more than a year. So, the children are growing up in this toxic environment.
Our biggest frustration is that the mother is willing to put the children in a place of safety, but we have nowhere to take them. All the children’s homes in the area are full.
“We’ve called everywhere, and no one has any space. We have at least six similar cases where children have to be left in that abusive environment because you have nowhere else to take them.” He said these children are nine and 12 years old, with the girl of 16 already addicted to narcotics.
“We have another situation with a woman who has four children, and she accidentally spilled boiling water on her two-year-old’s face. She’s also a drug addict, and they’re out of it all the time. She didn’t take the child for treatment because she never registered the child. Now this poor child has to tough it out, and all four of them have to grow up in this toxic environment of drugs, poor choices, and men who come in at times; the mother will do anything for money.”
Kyle explained that cases such as these are usually reported to them by others, and because they don’t have statutory rights they refer the case to the relevant welfare organisations and investigate alongside them.
“The hair of one girl of about five or six years old is falling out because of malnutrition. We have many stories like these, and I think the big thing we’re realising is that very few people know of these situations, and few people actually care. Someone recently sent me an email asking if I really have to post so many hard stories, but it’s the reality of what’s going on in our community. It’s happening in Krugersdorp! “It’s easy to find space for a toddler or the younger children. Everyone wants to adopt them. Orphanages only take in a certain spectrum of children. For example, they only take in up to 12-year-olds. There’s a major issue with 13- to 21-year-olds.”
The few places that do take in these age groups usually focus on children with behavioural issues, and placing a child who had no such issues into this kind of environment can be problematic.
As a way to help solve the problem at least to some degree, CCCO has opened their House Nehemiah, which will take in mothers and children for whom there is no space elsewhere. Those in need can contact the CCCO on 010 100 0075.
