Place of Hope

Yesterday I went with one of my classmates to visit the place where I'll be volunteering for the semester. It's called the Place of Hope and it's a shelter for mothers and children who are victims of domestic violence. Its mission is to “restore and empower abused women and their children in crisis to be socially responsible and economically self-sufficient” and the center manager is amazing. She wasn't at the shelter when we went to meet her, but some of the people working said that she wouldn't be long, she'd be back soon. We weren't thinking in South African time, so we thought maybe we'd wait 30 minutes at the most. We ended up waiting an hour and a half, but it was worth it. She talked to us a lot about things that we could do to help around the shelter. Since I said I wanted to work with the littler kids, I'm going to be working in the nursery. I'll be getting there in the middle of naptime so for that time she's going to put me in charge of the four- and five-year olds (who she calls the “seniors” of the nursery), which could mean anything from teaching them simple board games, reading and acting out a story, or just kicking around a ball. She stressed that if we see anywhere that we think we could help, or have any creative ideas, just to let her know and she'll pretty much let us do anything fun with the kids. Mostly they just need attention and someone to show that they care about them. Since they're all from homes that were very violent, most of them aren't used to having a lot of positive attention because (this is what the manager pointed out) their moms had to spend a lot of focus and time on trying to protect them and herself, which didn't leave much time to just relax and spend quality time with the kids. And because keeping the kids safe was more of a priority than playing with them, also a lot of the moms don't really know how to or feel comfortable with just playing with their kids. So the manager said that occasionally a mom or two (who isn't working at the time) will come in with the “senior nursery” group and just play with us. That will be really great also because I know I'll get to meet some really interesting people and also be someone that the women can talk to if they want or need that.

And then the rest of the time when all the littler ones are awake, I think I'll be helping out in the nursery. Right now there are two workers taking care of 26 kids ranging in age from a few months to five years. So I know they really need the extra hands. It's not that many kids all the time though because most of the women at the shelter, when they're not working, help out with the nursery kids and will carry around a baby or sit with a group while they play outside. There seems to be a very strong community there, between all the women that stay there and including the staff as well. So hopefully I can become a little part of that community. I know it's going to be a really good experience, and I think it will end up being one of the most memorable things that I'll do here.