Nachdem Adelaide Mangena im vergangenen Jahr St. Peter’s Child Care aufgrund eines sehr guten Angebots der Wits-Universiät verlassen hat, gibt es eine Nachfolgerin: Ms. Babalwa Alven. In ihrer Selbstvorstellung erläutert sie ihre Motivation im Projekt mitzuarbeiten, kritisch an der Weiterentwicklung von StPCC mitzuwirken, ein Konzept für die Erwachsenen im Projekt zu entwickeln. Sie geht ein auf ihr Aufwachsen im Eastern Cape und in einem Township von Kapstadt und erklärt Wahrheit und Gerechtigkeit als ihre Grundwerte sowie den Glauben als ihre tragende Basis. Wir freuen uns, wieder eine so kompetente Sozialarbeiterin im Projekt zu haben.

Ihre Selbstvorstellung:

I am serving as a social worker at Saint Peters Child Care Centre, in Parkview of Johannesburg. I was born in the Eastern Cape where my family’s roots are, later relocated to Cape Town, in a township called Khayelitsha. My life principles and values are firmly rooted in my faith in God. He is a God of justice and order, and this informs both my personal life orientation and my professional ethics. I believe that without justice effective social welfare cannot be achieved. The well-being of families and children, communities and society at large is dependent on justice. Furthermore, I believe that truth and justice work hand in hand and that justice can never be accomplished without truth.

Social work fulfills me by availing opportunities to speak for the voiceless and to protect the vulnerable, in order to see justice served. I regard my career as the expression of my greater calling more than being a job. The past 3 months at Saint Peters afforded me that opportunity in various ways. Providing interactive methods of support to the mothers and the children has been both a serving and growing experience. It progressively refines my own lenses while providing me a sense of purpose.

I have previously worked with young people as a youth facilitator at the Institute for Healing of Memories, but the experience and context was very different. The respective challenges posed are different between the two contexts, because the St Peters environment is semi-institutionalized.

While giving my professional best in this current service, I also remain truly blessed to be impacting the lives of these children and equipping the mothers for better competence. The experience also gives me opportunity to positively critique the project and propose quality improvement strategies. There is great potential for more effectiveness.

I envision this programme providing services that will start where the governments stops. This can be done through providing permanent home environment where our children can derive a sense of belonging and can form meaningful relationships that will last for their life time.