St George’s Home for Girls, in Bute Road, Wynberg, is celebrating 160 years of taking in girls and providing them with love and a safe place to grow.
The walls are covered in murals of trees, water, birds and flowers and the furnishings are colourful and warm.
House manager Graeme Cairns produced a poster board showing the dark walls and drab furniture that used to characterise the home before 470 volunteers gave the double-storey building a makeover in 1970.
The history goes back to August 15, 1862, when the first child was admitted to St George’s Orphanage in Roeland Street. It was founded by Mary Arthur of England after Bishop Robert Gray, the first Anglican bishop of Cape Town asked her to open a home for orphaned girls. Three years later and due to the increase in orphans, the orphanage moved to a larger house, Granite Lodge, in Harrington Street.
During the 1870s, there were 200 orphans and Ms Arthur opened a mission school at which some of the girls were trained to become teachers of the younger ones. She died in 1891, and Thomas Fothergill Lightfoot succeeded as the superintendent.
The orphanage moved to Rosebank, where Princess Alice (Countess of Athlone) opened it, and later it moved again to Claremont and finally to the present location, which was opened by the Archbishop of Cape Town, Reverend Robert Selby Taylor.
Now known as a child and youth care centre, St George’s is home to 38 girls between the ages of 3 and 18.
“Girls who are placed here often experience neglect, abandonment, abuse and trauma in their families or communities. Often, it’s impossible to send the child back to their community or family as the conditions there have not improved or the perpetrator might still live there,” says Mr Cairns.
He adds that they also care for children infected and affected by HIV/Aids.
“The goal is to reunite the girls with their extended families, but it’s often not possible. The girls have to learn from a young age to be independent in preparation for when they have to leave the home. St George’s teaches them important skills through a transition to independence and mentorship programme so that they can live independently after school and leaving St George’s. Among these skills are finding a job, saving money, writing a CV, and more,” says Mr Cairns.
There are various reasons why girls are placed at the home, he says. “Some girls come from single-parent families where unemployment, alcohol or drug abuse is prevalent. Some are neglected and abused, either sexually, physically or emotionally. Some are at-risk because of poor parental control, emotional or physical deprivation.
“Since coronavirus, parents have lost their jobs and can no longer feed their children… We are also seeing more children in the 11-to-15 year age group from failed foster placements and those with behavioural problems.”
Mr Cairns says the girls are all placed with St George’s by the children’s court because of the inadequacy of or a complete breakdown in the primary care environment.
He says the girls receive protection, therapeutic and psychiatric treatment, feeding, clothing, housing and a bed to sleep in.
“Some of the girls have been sleeping on a floor or four in one bed. Here they each have a bed,” he says.
“Each girl is subsidised by the Department of Social Services by 50% of what they need in the home and this amount is not being increased each year but actually decreased because the home was registered for 40 children in the past, now reduced to 38.”
Mr Cairns says all the girls attend nine schools across the peninsula because schools in the surrounding area cannot accommodate them.
“Few travel with public transport and the rest walk to school. The costs over the past two years doubled because of the rising costs of petrol and diesel,” he says.
The school fees for all pre-school and Grade R pupils need to be paid and there is no exemption for these girls, he says.
Mr Cairns says he is sometimes asked what impact the home has on the children. “It can sometimes only be seen in a few years or even many years hence after they come back and tell you what a difference St George’s has made in their lives,” he says.
Mr Cairns says that to mark the 160th anniversary, the home is asking people to donate funds in the amounts of R160, R1600 and R1.6m.
