Runaway – back to a caring Grandmother and planning to be primary school teacher.
Sarah*, a young 16 years old schoolgirl was brought to the Haven Wynberg on 19 July 2020 by officers of the Wynberg Police Station. She appeared to be lost and confused.
She related that she was struggling to deal with the conflict in the family as well as her personal behavioural challenges. We tried to contact her family as she is a minor. Her mother was discovered to be in a Haven shelter. Her brother, also homeless, was sleeping in a safe space in the City of Cape Town. Sarah was living with her granny outside the Cape Town area. Due to Covid-19 she was all alone at home during the day and idle. Her relationship with her granny deteriorated and she became unhappy and yearning to see her mother. Sarah stole money and ran away from home to look for her mother in Cape Town.
After intensive sessions with the Haven Social Worker a Personal Development Plan (PDP) was agreed on, divided into three sections viz.
a) Short term- Looking for her mother and brother, whom we quickly located and referring her to Badisa since she was minor. She refused to go to the children’s home as was suggested by Badisa. In collaboration with Badisa, the child, her mother and the Haven Social Worker agreed that she would be allowed to remain in the shelter for few days until we could contact her granny.
b) Medium-term- Going back home process: Her mother was co-operating and we could communicate with Sarah’s granny, who was shocked that she was in Cape Town. She readily agreed to take Sarah back. To help make the reunification sustainable, Sarah attended the in-house life skills program and an online anger management course. After the telephonic reunification agreement was concluded with the granny, the Haven Wynberg supported Sarah with transport arrangement and costs to complete her reunification on the 24th July 2020.
c) Long term –Completion of her education: Sarah agreed to go back home and committed to continue with her education. She wants to become a primary school teacher when she completes her matric.
We are grateful that we could help her back on track and reunited with a caring Grandmother. The outcome for this “runaway” could have been so different. Some kids are not that “lucky” and become homeless adults!
Thank you for assisting the Haven to help homeless people back to a home, family and community.