Esselen street Sunnyside 2001, a blond boy, aged maybe 12, is playing soccer on the pavement with his friends. His curly hair mopped his head, clearly he needed a haircut. His blue eyes sparkled, a wide smile convinced everyone that he was having a lot of fun, as he played ball with other streetkids infront of the Café.
I did not ask questions about him, didn't event think he was a street child, I simply thought he had befriended the other children, infact I never even realized that these young boys were streetkids, they did not beg as I passed them by. I only noticed him because he was so very fair compared to the other black kids. My main concern at that time was to help young girls get of the streets, out of prostitution.
At that time we had the 17 year old Monique with her 6 month old baby, Marlise was 16 and 6 months pregnant, the 12 year old Jeanna and her 13 year old heroine addicted sister Rosemary, Jackie was pregnant and already had a 6 year old son, Raymond and Leana with her 5 year old little girl) 2 other woman also lived with us, they were recovering drug addicts. All of them had been in and out of prostitution.
Desperate to find accommodation and solutions to the young girls problems, this news paper article published on Wednesday 8 August 2001 got my attention, See article here This could be an answer I thought, if there is enough shelter, we could find a place that could take care of the girls and their babies. the girls all wanted to keep their children, yet they could not care for them on their own. I contacted every single name mentioned in the article. Johannes Earle from POPUP could not help, he took in only boys and was operating on maximum intake already. they were legally aloud to house only 15 boys in there shelter aged 15 and up.
Social Workers and the government departments had no places to refer me to. Lerato House, the only shelter in the city (at that time) that housed prostitutes and children was filled to the brim. Itumeleng shelter for street kids had too many children in there Home and could not legally take in any more. The Pretoria Child and Family Care Society was more worried about the babies than the young mothers, as was the CMR. The only oraganisation I found that was sympathetic and supportive was the Catholic Woman’s league, the lady Louise Ruch would in the years to come play an important role in the placements of some of the children.
As a last resort I tried the Jacaranda children’s home, maybe they could help. They had no space, and the 19 boys that had been reported on had already been moved to a jail for children awiating trial. Eventhough they had not been charged, there was no place for them at the Childrens home, they stayed only one night, other than was reported by the Beeld, where Ms Uda Strydom said that they would stay at the home until permanent accommodation could be found.
The 12 year old blond boy was also in jail at Protem, as most of the boys I saw there that day playing ball infront of the Cafe where they could buy glue for next to nothing. I told Jeanna and Rosemary about him. They knew him, he was Jeanna's age, they urged me to get him out of jail. Finding the number to the jail wasn’t difficult, bailing him out wasn’t either. The officer was to happy, she said that the boys could not stay there. When a child escaped from the prison they left them to go. They had no reason to bring him back to jail. and according to the law, they were illegally jailed: Detention of youths: An unconvicted person under the age of 18 years could not be kept in a prison, police cell or lock-up. Section 29 of the Correctional Services Act, 1959 (Act 8 of 1959), which provides for the detention of unconvicted juveniles, was amended in 1994.
Section 29 amended in 1996 gave the courts a discretion to order the detention of accused persons between the ages of 14 and 18 years in prison, if the presiding officer had reason to believe that such detention was necessary in the interests of justice and the safety and protection of the public and that no secure place of safety was available for such detention. A further safety mechanism was built in by requiring the courts, which order the detention of youths, to review these orders every 14 days.
I did not have to sign Isak out, did not even have to tell anyone where I am taking him. He did not know me, but he came with me. The other kids waved through iron bars as we left and some shouted: "When are you coming back for me!". Obviously I could not go back to fetch more boys, our home was bursting with people!
He came to live with us, aged 13, (a month before his birthday), he had been on and of the streets since the age of 10. Isak stayed concerned about his friends for weeks and I promised we would find a home for his ‘black brothers’ that he had to leave behind. That proved more difficult than the simple promise I made him that day. The Beeld Newspaper helped the streetkids to be placed in a Children's home ones, maybe they could help again. Adele Stiehler wrote the article, so she was the one I contacted. She wasnt as friendly as I thought she'd be, infact she was even rude. She knew the Children was not in the home anymore but in jail, yet, she was not willing to write about it this time. We had to find another avenue. Eventually the kids in jail found their way back on the streets somehow and later every single one of them came to live with us.
