Living in a Shack
Stone Hill sounds like it could be the name of a planned neighborhood, like one you or I might live in. But in reality, Stone Hill or Kliphuewel in the local tongue, is just the opposite.
It is a place where those too poor to live in a city set up pieces of tin and other materials they could find that would provide them and their family shelter and protection.
Not welcome inside the organized streets and neighborhoods of planned and regulated cities, these marginalized families squat outside the city of Durbanville, South Africa.
It is rare to find a traditional family structure. It’s not uncommon for children to be raised by a single parent, sometimes with the help of extended family. It is rare for a child’s mother and father to be married and maintain a traditional family structure.
Living in a shack is a hard life. Many of the shacks are one room structures with dirt floors. If they don’t have a mattress - and many don’t - residents sleep on blankets on the cold ground. Everyday tasks are extra challenging - these families often lack tables or surfaces for necessities like cooking or doing homework.
Students have a longer commute to school than their peers, and are often forced to learn in a language that is not their first language.
The already formidable challenges of school - understanding concepts, completing homework, finding transport to school and showing up on time, lack of supplied materials and textbooks, underpaid teachers whose attendance is inconsistent - are all multiplied by the challenges Stone Hill students face when they return home.
Obtaining meals is a challenge, as many families can’t afford them. Often, young children are responsible to watch younger siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings until late into the night. For many, they would need to do this because their guardian or parent, often single, is working long hours.
Sewage often flows freely through the “streets” of the settlement, where children roam, often barefoot.
Medical challenges are exacerbated by the need to pay for public, unreliable transport into the city, where they are often turned away because health facilities are filled to the absolute max early each morning before they can manage the trip.
Unsupervised at the Dump
Adults are occupied with the daunting task of survival.
On top of that, many are unable to function normally under the trauma they’ve lived through. While their marginalized parents cope with these things, even very small children are often unsupervised.
“The children spend time at a dumping site,” writes Olga Tshikovhi, who works alongside ITMI’s Charl van Wyk and has lived in Stone Hill. “This is all children can do when they don’t go to any form of school or preschool.”
The lack of supervision is dangerous. Violence and lack of care for others and life isn’t uncommon among the residents of Stone Hill. Still, small children from families who squat outside of the city of Durbanville face an even more pressing danger.
Malnutrition
Research tells us that when a child doesn’t receive proper nutrition for the first 1000 days of life, it can interfere with normal development, impacting the rest of that child’s life, including the ability to understand spiritual concepts.
This is an issue for so many born to families living in Stone Hill.
For many families, their dismal income doesn’t provide enough for all the nutrition a growing child should receive. They struggle to find work and put food on the table.
The Early Childhood Development Center (The creche)
ITMI supporters helped build the creche, or the Early Childhood Development Center in response to these issues in Stone Hill.
Our partners recognized this as a way to show the people of Stone Hill they were cared for, to protect small children who were vulnerable, be agents of justice in the face of gross injustice and to shape minds with Biblical principles from a young age.
Lwazikazi, a believer living in Stone Hill, is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the creche.
The center was one of several outreach programs in Stone Hill that work together to demonstrate and declare the Gospel to the hurting in the settlement. Other outreaches include a medical clinic run by Dr. Bradley Kuhn (Charl van Wyk’s brother-in-law), church services, a soup kitchen, a tutoring center opened by ITMI’s Cindi Parris and several youth programs and Bible studies.
Akhanyile: The Results of Proper Nutrition and Care
Asanda was 17 when she became pregnant with Akhanyile. She was supposed to be in 8th grade that year.
When our partners learned that Asanda wanted to finish high school, they took her and 3-month-old Akhanyile into a safe house that was established to give the young women of the community a safe place to sleep if needed.
This is often a need in Stone Hill for one reason or another. Young girls find themselves without a safe place to stay due to conflict with a parent’s abusive significant other or extreme poverty.
Akhanyile started attending the Early Childhood Development Center or, as Stone Hill residents call it, the creche, when he was 3 months old.
At the creche, the growing toddlers receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch.
Now 3 years old, Akhanyile’s development is right on par for his age - a unique accomplishment for a family in Stone Hill, where most struggle to provide the nutrition necessary for normal development in the first 1000 days of life.
Akhanyile’s family couldn’t afford the Early Childhood Development Center’s minimal fees, but he is able to play in this safe, stimulating and Christ-centered environment every day because of the generosity of others.
Buhle: Stability During Tumultuous Times
When Buhle first came to the Early Childhood Development Center in Stone Hill, South Africa, her mother, Katie, was fortunate enough to have a job.
She depended on the creche to watch Buhle while she was at work. When Katie lost her job, Buhle stopped attending the creche for awhile.
After that, Katie could only afford for Buhle to attend sporadically because the only work she could get was seasonal work at a grape farm.
Eventually, Katie was offered some help with the minimal fee so that Buhle could attend regularly. A few months ago, four-year-old Buhle lost her mother and is now staying with her father.
When Buhle comes to the Early Childhood Development Center, she enjoys playing on the slide and coloring, basic childhood opportunities most children in Stone Hill don’t experience except when they attend the creche.
Owenthu: Improving Motor Skills
Owenthu’s mother, Sibulelo, was well into her teens when Owenthu was born. At first, Sibulelo’s mother, Ntibeleng, was Owenthu’s primary caregiver, because Sibulelo couldn’t do it.
Now, Owenthu lives with her mother and her grandmother. Owenthu’s grandmother does work three days a week, but it only just provides enough for food for the family, so Owenthu, too, is one of the children who is helped by the generosity of others.
“It was such a great excitement for her and her family to be able to attend the creche,” Olga remembers.
Owenthu couldn’t even hold a crayon when she first arrived, but her fine motor skills have developed well during her time at the Early Childhood Development Center.
Owenthu loves singing and dancing on the soft mat and large open area available at the creche.
Even though they only have it once a year - she gets very excited about bouncing on the jumping castle!
The Early Childhood Development Center is a crucial element of the outreaches in Stone Hill.
“There are many [Stone Hill ] children in this situation and we are doing what we can to [try to] ensure that every child goes to a daycare or crèche. Starting where we are, with what we have,” writes Olga.
The foundational reason it is important for the children of Stone Hill to be protected and properly nourished is that helping families in this way demonstrates to the families in Stone Hill the value their Creator places on each person in a way that is much more effective than just words could be.
This demonstration of value stands in direct conflict with what many believe about themselves because of the way their culture generally views them. Understanding this Biblical principal is a key stepping stone to understanding a Savior who pursues a loving relationship with them.
The people of Stone Hill need to know they are cared about, both by the Lord and His people.
Partnering with the van Wyks, Kuhns, Parrises, Olga, Lwazikazi and the team of believers working in Stone Hill is a great way to be part of Biblically-based, Christ-centered transformational programs that are reaching the marginalized, impoverished and hurting.
It’s the beginning of a new year.
Perhaps the Lord is calling you to commit to a monthly donation of $28 or a one time donation of $336 that would extend the benefits of the creche to another child in need for a whole year.
If that’s not you, would you commit to praying for the children that attend the creche and their families once a week? Ask Jesus to work in their lives, to protect them and bring them and their families into a saving relationship with Him.
