Confronting Violence: Experiences in a South African Home for Abused Children
an article by Jisun

During my junior year of college, I had my first experience with the effects of violence among children in a former township of South Africa. International Volunteers of South Africa placed me at Kidshelter, a home for disadvantaged young boys, as both a childcare worker and an assistant social worker. The boys ranged from five to sixteen years of age; some were orphans, but many were juvenile criminals or came from abusive homes.

I was unprepared for the encounter. Seven adults, including myself, with no money for anything other than bare necessities could not handle the thirty boys in the home.

The boys' lives had evolved into a kind of prison: violence towards even their friends kept each boy in place. What's worse, while I myself was not violent, my mindset began to change into seeing the world in their way. I wondered whether strict physical discipline wasn't the only way the boys would understand.

After three weeks, I had yet to gain the boys' trust or respect. During one especially difficult day, a boy in my dorm assaulted me. I wanted to quit, but I realized that a lack of violence on my part was not enough. In addition to trying to stop the boys from being violent, I had to offer them real alternatives.

The home's social worker and I devised a weekly counseling system during which each boy could have relative control over how they wished to interact with us. This eliminated the perceived power imbalance, and opened dialogue. Since my time there, Kidshelter's counseling system has expanded to similar homes. Although my time ended before I saw concrete results, our hopes were that such a counseling system would allow for a smoother, less violent atmosphere in the children's daily lives.

International Volunteers of South Africa has a long history of community service. Open to people from all walks of life, IVZA is just one of many positive services promoting peaceful, concrete change amongst the nation's youth. It is part of a global volunteer placement agency, which can be found at http://www.volunteering.org.au/.

DISCUSSION

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Can longstanding violence be helped by someone from outside?


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NON-VIOLENCE

Latest reader comment:

Readers have considered that the violence exhibited by the young boys Jisun was working with was the result of their insecurity and fear. One reader named Angela noted, "these kids have lived a life of fear in which they have had no control of their lives. In giving the kids a control of how to interact with others on their terms, (Jisun) changed the power balance."

Readers generally thought that issues of power and control were central to the boys' perpetuation of violence, and one, namely Ken, thought that the trust developed by Jisun would be critical in creating "self-worth and security" in the boys.

This report was posted on May 13, 2002. The moderator is Ben.

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