Health

Social Welfare

Many of our children experience difficulty accessing services and obtaining birth certificates and government grants. Children like Lerato, who left school to care for her sick and younger sisters. Following the death of their mother, their maternal grandmother took them in but she died shortly afterwards and Lerato was forced to take on the role of a mother at a very young age. Facing life on their own, the girls struggled to cope and locked themselves in their shack away from the rest of the world.

A Starfish project worker heard the girl’s story and went to visit them but no one answered the door. However, through a gap she noticed a key hanging up on the inside by the door.

“I continued knocking and when there was still no answer, I realised that there was something terribly wrong. I reported the incident to the police and when they came, they broke down the door. We found the three girls lying weak on the floor. Lerato couldn’t walk and baby Anna was so weak that she was even unable to cry anymore. As we entered, Phindile leapt into my arms with tears streaming down her face. These poor children had been so overcome by depression and sadness that they’d locked themselves in their little shack with hardly any food and water for two whole weeks. The windows had been covered with blankets to block out the horror of the outside world and the smell of urine was just awful. They simply couldn’t cope without their mum.” Starfish social worker.

The children were taken to the project centre where they were cleaned, fed, and received some initial counselling. A member of the community and project volunteer also came forward to act as a foster mother. Starfish provided them with food parcels and educational support to help them come to terms with the loss of their mother.

Project staff then began the process of attaining birth certificates for the children, which is required to apply for welfare grants – a crucial step towards helping the children's stability and independence.