when the fathers come home the sons will follow

The Masizame shelter for orphaned and vulnerable children is next to the police station in Kwanokuthula, about half a kilometre from St. Monica's. When they arrive, some of the children are in such a state of neglect that for a week or so, they lie around the place on the ground unable to respond to any form of stimulation. Emotionally they have been starved to a condition of near death. The little community of Masizame staff and volunteers brings them back to life. Then begins the delicate task of teaching the children how to eat from a plate, sleep in a bed, toilet in a bowl, speak with other children and adjust to a new world where adults are no longer a mortal danger to them.

The most dangerous adults in a township are men. The old ones and the younger ones. It is they who introduce the young to violent sexual initiation, abuse their wives, neglect their babies, kill and maim each other. In some parts of Khayalitsha in Cape Town, the women, young and old, huddle together during the night at one end of their tiny dwelling so as to provide some protection against their own menfolk. In some of the gangs, you see, it is a condition of promotion to a highr rank that the man rape his mother or his sister.

The real problem in Kwanokuthula, as it is in Khayalitsha and other townships and in the great cities of the world, is that a great many men are not being fathers. They fail to love, cherish, respect, protect and nourish their families.

You see the consequences of this failure in the lifeless eyes of the little ones of Masizame. As I awoke in the middle of the night with these thoughts, the words came to me, " When the fathers come home the sons will follow".

More on this and the miracles of Masizame in my next posting.