June was Youth Month in South Africa and the focus was on the future generations of our rainbow nation.
In light of this, Sandton-based Lauren Lopes has decided to spread the word about TLC Children’s Home situated in Bronkhorstfontein, Johannesburg, as their marketing advisor. She explained, “TLC Children’s Home was founded in 1993 when the harrowing fate of abandoned babies in hospitals was realised. Since then, more than 800 babies have passed through the home, with each child placed into a loving family at some stage.”
She further highlighted that the home is not referred to as merely an orphanage. “It is more than an orphanage, it is a family. An unusual, large, unconventional family to be sure, but a family nonetheless. One of the earliest convictions formed by TLC’s founders was to treat each vulnerable child as she had her own biological children, not subjecting them to an institutional environment, but instead a warm loving home,” she said.
Lopes highlighted an inspirational story. “The first TLC baby is a glowing testament to this philosophy. [One] is a Wits rugby player, a graduate and old boy of St David’s Inanda, and is heading to play international rugby. He is not a unique case at TLC. Many more of the teenagers that are being raised by the Jarvis family are also healthy well-rounded young people who contribute to their community,” explained Lopes.
She said that no child should have to suffer through the ‘traumatic institutional system of living without a caregiver’.
“We want our children to thrive, dream, break barriers, build a better country than we lived in and make progress. Broken, traumatised, lonely children cannot do that. Happy, well-loved, well-educated children can,” stressed Lopes.
On Youth Day, Lopes and a few volunteers asked the teenagers at TLC a pertinent question, ‘What are your hopes and dreams for your country’?
“They are South African teenagers with hopes and dreams for their futures, which have a far greater chance of being realised than if they had not been taken in. Their answers to the questions about their country are a powerful testament to the people they are becoming.” Many of the teenagers’ answers explained their goals for the future and highlighted what ‘they are reaching towards’.
Lopes concluded, “If a family is the cell of society, then this one [the TLC family] is healthy and thriving.”
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