Mission statement

It is the mission of Intombi Shelter to provide a temporary, therapeutic, residential care programme for female children between the ages of 13 and 18 who are victims of the Street and/or child prostitution, are homeless and or destitute.

Intombi Shelter operates from 60 Olivia road, adjoining the Hillbrow Drop-In Centre.  Intombi Shelter is a short-term (a few days to three months) residential programmes for young females between the ages of 13 and 18, referred here from the Hillbrow Drop-in Centre, Welfare, Police, shelters and centres doing work among girl children on the street.Reintegration with normative society is the focus of the project. We respect the fact that the girls can survive on their own on the Street, and that they necessarily learned some unsavoury survival skills, which most readers of this document cannot have (and thus will not be able to survive even a few days in the vice subculture of the inner-city streets). We do however hope to assist the girls to acquire alternative skills which would make reintegration with normative society a real possibility for them - thus providing them with a choice which they would not otherwise have had the luxury of.

 

Discussion of the Problem

Some female children fall through the holes in the Social Welfare systems and end up prostituting and addicted to expensive illicit drugs.  The largest percentage of the children we deal with have had past dealings with Welfare and many of them have been "exonerated" by this system  in other words Welfare officially turned her back on that difficult child, closing her file.  Upon retrieval of this child from the Street the impossibility of residential placement in a therapeutic facility faces the child.  To attempt to integrate a 17-year-old crack-cocaine addicted child prostitute (usually since the age of 14) into any residential facility that does not specifically cater for her would be an atrocity.  Intombi Shelter specialises in residential care of children falling into this category.

Whilst the emphasis of regular children's homes fall on academic schooling this facility understands that these children come to us at the age of 16 or 17, with a standard 4 education, and with a major social drawback caused by the multiple  rapes, the addiction and the dysfunctions caused during her time as a child prostitute.  This facility will attempt to instil a stronger internal locus of control, and will provide life and job skills to these children  the focus will be on therapy and counselling, preparing her for reintegration with society.

Intombi Shelter cannot be a school or boarding school in service to parents who simply prefer someone else to care for their children, or for children who prefer not to live under their parents' discipline.  Intombi Shelter provides services to the children who want to reconstruct their lives after suffering the loss of family bonds, and in addition have experienced the specific negative patterning of life on the street.

We understand that about 80% of these children suffered childhood sexual abuse, which was perpetuated by the perceived cruelty of the welfare systems (and in some cases the inadequacy of the legal systems), schools of detention, then eventually by life on the street as a child prostitute.  These children usually present with very serious sexual dysfunction, antisocial personality disorder and a multitude of problems associated with disassociation and repression.

It is our estimate that these children need to be domesticated and rehabilitated in a family setting where they can acquire life, social and personal skills, as well as employment or job skills that will make integration with normative society a possibility.

We make a great deal of the human need to be able to choose. The girls at Intombi Shelter choose to be here every day. We work hard to provide them with choices, one of which is always to partake in the programmes with its rules, order and peaceful coexistence. We respect the fact that we work with young people in need adult guidance, but we also keep in mind that most of these children have themselves experienced things of horror that not many readers of this document can hope to survive. The personality that has survived such unspeakable atrocities is usually in greater need of seeing clear choices open to them than what is needed by other people - this is perhaps one of the reasons why participants need to know that they may leave the programmes at any time. Girls do not run away or abscond, but rather make a sort of rational decision to either go back to the streets or use their newly acquired social skills to make things work out at their dysfunctional homes.

While illiteracy is one of the great stumbling blocks it is now becoming clear that some young girls who do not shape at school because of learning difficulties, are eventually put out to street to earn her own living. A girl child who does not learn at school, and who is destined for a sub standard job can be seen as more of a burden than an asset because her expected bride-price is very low. Girl children are also not looked upon as a future resource for the parents (pension) because she will be expected to care for her husband's family. Many of the children thus 'thrown away' (basically ignored and deprived of parenting - placing the child at risk) resort to the inner-city slums to make a life for herself.