Fuphe, Dan, “Tragedy Waiting to Happen: Hundreds of vulnerable toddlers risk their lives every day in overcrowded, unhygienic and dangerous inner-city crèches.” Sowetan: The Soul Truth, KZN Edition, 17 January 2005, p. 6-7.

 

OVERVIEW

 

The inside headline begins: “”Why Are Our Children In These Deathtraps? Inner city crèches: overcrowded, dirty, unhygienic but the biggest fear, the officials say, is the very risk of fire and loss of young lives.”

 

A crèche is a house built or dedicated to children’s services—day-care or pre-school. The Sowetan investigation, the basis for this article, found that “unscrupulous operators are running daycare centres in old and decaying city buildings that have been condemned by health and safety inspectors. Some of these buildings, found all over Johannesburg’s inner city, have been found to be unhygienic, overcrowded and dangerous. Many have no escape routes in case of fire.”  Loss of life in the event of fire was the greatest concern of inspectors. At some sites, key exits were locked for safety consideration or convenience of operation.

 

In the six weeks from December (2004) to the middle of January Johannesburg’s Police Department (JMPD) and Emergency Management Systems (EMS) have condemned 15 daycare centres. “Some operators, however, “defiantly continue to run their shady businesses.”

 

Of the centres visited over the past weeks, only one, the Flock for the Love of Children run by the Methodist Church on Pritchard Street was found abiding by city laws. All the others were found failed to provide:
            > proper ventilation
            > toilents (some merely provided plastic containers for children)

 

            > clean mattresses and carpets
            > clean eating utensils
            > fire escape routes.

 

Owners of The Hollywood Creche, Happy Day-Care Centre and Edu-Care Preschool, all warned and condemned over the past year, explained they had no resources to make changes or no place to move.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How serious a threat do you think these conditions are to children? Would you rather see them in unsatisfactory situations or suffering with a mother who can’t work or neglected by neighbors or others called upon to help?

2. If the present system is not working, how would you go about fixing it?

3. Were several of you in a poor neighborhood concerned about young children, what steps would you take to begin an effective daycare centre?

IMPLICATIONS

 

1. With the death of parents due to AIDS, divorce and many other factors, and where poverty is prevalent, it is crucial that single parents or harried grandparents have help in tending to children.
2. It is crucial that young children receive nurture, structure and learning. Without this, many will fail or make slow progress in school, or perhaps never make school.
3. It takes more than government or donor concern and money, to make daycare work. Strong commitment on the part of staff and community support is necessary.