No room at the inn for desperate orphans

The sound of children's laughter echoes through the Christ Church Christian Care Centre, on the outskirts of Hillbrow, Johannesburg.

Their joy is a far cry from the circumstances that led to their living at the home.

Thirty-nine orphaned children between the ages of two and 20 live in this converted hotel.

The centre's social worker, Nancy Mudau, said she was approached almost daily by desperate caregivers who can no longer look after the children they have - but she cannot take in more.

On Friday, teacher Margaret Nyarugwe watched the children playing.

"I was watching one child and thinking about his first day here, when he was so thin and had malnutrition.

"We had a nine-year-old who couldn't read but after six months I was happy to see the child reading."

But running a children's home is painful at times.

As Nyarugwe gives a tour of the old hotel, she recalls the children's stories.

One little boy was born to a teenage mother in another home.

"Teenagers in a home sometimes fall pregnant. Then the baby grows up in the home. It's a vicious circle."

Mudau said that the sprawling building had room but not the funds to take in more children.

It is funded by donors.

Each of the 39 children receives three meals a day, emotional support, therapy to deal with emotional problems, schooling and homework help, and extra lessons.

A caregiver looks after eight children - cooking for them, washing their clothes and taking them to the clinic when they are sick.

One of the orphans, 20-year-old Cindy, lost her mother while still very young.

Shortly before her grandmother died, she left Bergville, in KwaZulu-Natal, for Tembisa, in Gauteng, in 2006 at the age of 14, unable to speak English. Her aunt could not afford to look after her and took her to the centre in 2007.

Now, six years later, her English is fluent and she is writing matric and attending extra classes on Saturday mornings.

Mudau says that many children struggle when they grow older.

"They ask questions about why they are here. Sometimes they can be rude.

"We might have an older teenager who wants to go out at night and we say 'no'. They will answer: "If my mother were alive, maybe she would allow me to go out.'

"The children can become angry. They don't understand why they are here.

"They ask: 'What happened to my parents? Why me?"