"Let Us Cherish"

I was lucky enough to spend last week at the Masigcine Children’s Home along with Meaghan, Nia, and Brittany. Coming off of a stressful midterm season, it was the perfect break from Yale. In the township of Mfuleni, just down the road from Power Child Campus, Masigcine is a home for children from the ages of 3 months to 6 years (with some older exceptions) who are orphaned, abandoned, and/or HIV-positive.

 

It is easy to come up with stereotypes about orphanages – they are drab, depressing, and the kids are lonely and miserable. I wasn’t sure what to expect at the beginning, but within my first few hours, I realized that those stereotypes were nowhere to be found at Masigcine, which menas “let us cherish.” The approximately 20 children at the home are all well cared for and loved by an amazing staff, consisting both of local women and international volunteers. Each day at Masigcine includes healthy meals, naptime (especially for the younger ones, who are not at school during the day), lots of playtime, baths, and time for reading. The kids are very comfortable, and opened up to us right away. It wasn’t long before I had 3-year-olds tugging at me with one request or another – “Mama, I want water,” “Mama, [pick me] up,” etc. The four of us who spent the week at the children’s home each gravitated towards different children – Meaghan and Nia tended to be baby whisperers, while Brittany and I spent a lot of time with the toddlers, who had an amazing mix of personality and independence.

Playing so much with the kids, it was easy to forget why they were there in the first place, but we were humbled by their stories. Babies at the home had been found in toilets, left under beds, and abused and neglected in all manner of ways. Two of the girls I spent the most time with, twins named Maureen and Christine, had apparently been so badly neglected when they arrived at the home two years ago that they were sick all the time, cried constantly, and refused to eat because they didn’t know what food was. The girls they were then did not at all resemble the lively, vivacious girls that I got to know, who were always sweet and ever active, whether modeling the volunteers’ sunglasses, playing on the jungle gym, or turning curtain ties into headbands and posing for cameras. I am fully confident that their beautiful development can be attributed to the work that Masigcine does. Rather than being overwhelmed by the poverty we saw and heartbreaking stories that we heard, I developed a strong sense of hope for Mfuleni and beyond by spending time at this amazing children’s home and knowing that good work is being done with tangible effects, in a form that is so easy to replicate. If you ever make it to Cape Town, Mfuleni and Masigcine are well worth a visit. Just make sure you say hi to the kids for me!

- Jenny Witthuhn