Vision & Mission

Izibusiso is an independent Foster Home and seeks to address the plight of small children in Zwelihle and the wider Overstrand. With the scourges of unemployment, poverty, alcohol, drug addiction and HIV-Aids severely affecting certain sections of local communities, it is most often the innocents, the children, who suffer. We believe that every child is a blessing from God and as such should be loved and cherished. At Izibusiso we accommodate up to eight abandoned or vulnerable children under the age of six years and care for them until suitable long term arrangements can be made for their futures.

This initiative works well with HCFS undertaking the statutory placements of children in the house and the Management team attending to the day to day activities.

Izibusiso opened in February, 2009. The house is modelled on a normal family home and consists of a House Mother and between six to eight children between birth and the age of six years – two House Mothers create a good mother to child ratio. We also have the input from a group of women from the United Church (known as the Izibusiso Angels), who go in on a daily basis to work with the children.

MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to reach out to the vulnerable children in the Overstrand and try to heal their broken little lives.

THE CHILDREN
We ensure that the children are brought up according to their own culture (in our house the Xhosa culture is observed) as we are aware that they came from homes of a specific culture and will be returned to homes of that same culture. They also live within the community where they were born and are brought up as part of that community, speaking their mother tongue.

Most of the children who are admitted to Izibusiso have heartbreaking stories to tell, some are brought to us when they are 6 hours old, many are severely undernourished and emotionally fragile, some have never known a stable and loving environment – Izibusiso is their first experience of a warm, caring home.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION
Because most of the children arrive undernourished and with compromised health, we have a stringent medical protocol and several different sources of medical assistance we can call upon when needed. These resources include a paediatrician, a general practitioner who makes calls to the house, a panel of doctors who will see the children at their consulting rooms, the Zwelihle Clinic, the Provincial Hospital Clinic, the Aids Clinic and, when necessary, the Casualty Department of the Provincial Hospital.

Our eating plan for the children has been drawn up by a registered dietitian and includes all the necessary food stuff required for healthy development; the diet also includes cultural food.

We are constantly amazed when we see what a difference love, good nutrition and medical care make to these children – we see them blossom before our very eyes. The happy faces, robust little bodies and playful energy they expend say it all.

ENSURING THE FUTURE
Together with the Social Workers we have monthly meetings to review each child, their progress and the plans for their futures. Each child must ultimately move on to a permanent home, one where they will be loved, and where they will feel wanted. Our wish is that every child could be repatriated to loving parents, but this is not always possible, often the parents are dead, absent or unable to function as good parents. The next placement of choice would be within a unit of their own family, grandparents, aunts, etc, failing which permanent foster homes or adoption are investigated. When adoption is the preference, we work with accredited Adoption Agencies ABBA Adoptions and WANDISA.

We love these little people from the moment they arrive, enjoy them while they are with us, and cry when they leave – but we understand that they need their own special ‘forever’ families in order to grow up as normally as possible.

THE LEGAL ASPECT
Children placed at Izibusiso fall under the protection of HCFS. There are three different categories of placement:

PLACE OF SAFETY: The child is sheltered while the Social Worker and the Children’s Court decide on the road forward. This placement can last up to three months and can often result in a transfer to Foster Care.

FOSTER CARE: The child is placed in the foster care of the House Mother until a permanent placement can be organised (either repatriation to the parents, a family member, foster parents or permanent adoption). This placement has no time limit.

SHORT STAY: Children at risk brought in by the police are admitted on a short term basis (usually one or two nights) until parents have been located and HCFS has authorised their release.

UNITED CHURCH
The mission statement of the United Church is:

·      To know Christ
·      To love one another
·      To touch a broken world in His name

“That in all things Jesus might have pre-eminence” (Col 1:19)

... is the reason we reach out to the vulnerable children in Zwelihle and try to touch their broken little worlds.