Pensioner Elizabeth Mntungwa, who is the only safety parent in the Witsand area, says she can’t imagine her life without her foster children. Photo by Barbara Maregele.
17 August 2015
Over the past month, the Western Cape Department of Social Development [DSD] in Athlone has been searching for temporary care volunteers to be trained to house and care for vulnerable children who have either been removed from their homes by a social worker. This can happen for various reasons such as behavioural problems, becoming orphaned or parental neglect and abandonment.
In accordance with the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, a safety parent may be needed to care for a child for an emergency period of 48 hours up to a maximum of 90 days. If no alternative placement is found after this period, the safety parent is often given the choice to foster the child for two years.
Safety parents are provided with an emergency care kit and a daily allowance of R27 per child, though this is not guaranteed, while foster parents can apply for a state welfare grant of R850 a month on behalf of the child.
DSD spokesperson Esther Lewis says, “The Department wants to be in a position where we have a database of trained safety parents we can draw on so that we do not overtax the same people. This work is taxing so safety parents often drop out or move. In some areas, there is a shortage of safety parents and therefore it is necessary to constantly recruit.”
Programme manager and trainer Gaynor Smith of Agape — the organisation contracted by the department to conduct screening and training and provide additional support for most safety parents in the province — says each organisation had its own criteria for training and facilitating safety parents.
“For emergency parents, that require a specific form called Form 36, we provide a care pack which includes about 40 nappies if it’s a baby; for older children, we give two sets of clothes and underwear, basic toiletries along with a R170 Shoprite voucher,” says Smith.
“Safety parents have to go to court, where a magistrate will issue an order to extend care for two weeks at a time,” says Smith. “However, we are finding the courts grant the order for the full three-month period. This means we can only give the fee to the safety parents at the end of this period which is a big problem. We have made several submissions to government requesting for this to be changed,” she says.
“We have a specific screening process where we check things like age, health, home environment and criminal records. We also require a criminal clearance for everyone in the household and living on the property. Another challenge is that unless we specifically request it, there is no way to check if any minors in the house have criminal records,” she says.
Smith has urged the state to consider creating a uniformed screening process across the provinces to safeguard the children. While many people may volunteer, they don’t always pass the screening process.
“We don’t just drop the child off and leave. We have supporting workshops and ongoing training to assist the parents. We have a very big focus on training these safety parents on how to handle children who have been sexually abused. These people are truly amazing because they do what so many of us won’t,” says Smith.
One such safety parent is 68-year-old Elizabeth Mntungwa. Over the past seven years, she has opened her heart and home to nearly a dozen children in need of temporary safe care.
“I always love children and looking after them. There are many times [when] it becomes challenging, but these are vulnerable children. If we don’t help them, who will?” she says.
She is one of just 16 registered safety parents in the Western Cape. Mntungwa is also currently the only trained safety parent in the Witsand community near Atlantis.
A retired domestic worker, Mntungwa looks after her nine-year-old granddaughter and also fosters four children between the ages of three and 19. They all share a two-bedroomed house.
“When I turned 50, the family I was working for bought me a RDP house in Dunoon. I went to the police station in Dunoon and I told them that if they find an abandoned child, I will look after it until they find the parents,” she says.
“A few weeks later, they brought me Joy. She was found abandoned at the Dunoon taxi rank when she was two years old. Now she’s nine and I love her like my own. When they couldn’t find her family, I became her foster mother and named her Joy,” she says.
Mntungwa was then approached by a social worker in the community to become a registered safety parent. She later fostered three more children.
“I get R850 a month for each child which barely covers school fees, food and clothes. I would rather not have anything, instead of seeing these children struggle. In the beginning, I had to cope for a long time without the R150 fee they give to safety parents, but we made it work,” she says.
“Agape has opened my mind and taught me patience. I do still get frustrated at times. I regularly attend the workshops at Agape where we learn different things like how to deal with toddlers and teenagers in different ways. Agape also trained us how to handle children that come with different emotions and backgrounds,” she says.
Mntungwa says the View Church in Tableview has been assisting her with the children’s school fees, uniforms and R10,000 in groceries.
“I want these children to have the best and the Church helps me a lot. My house might be small, but there is space. There are so many vulnerable children out there in need of help. I know it’s not easy, but if a family can take in just one child, it will make a big difference,” she says.