SACRIFICES MADE...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

In South Africa, social media abounds with posts and comments which either state outright that child and youth care work involves sacrifice or imply that it does.

 In 1923 The Revd Noel Aldridge recognised that there was a huge need for the care of boys either orphaned, or "pragmatically" orphaned (as he put it), in an area called Wichwood in Johannesburg, as a result of the loss of bread winning fathers in World War 1. At first he took boys into his own home ...the Rectory attached to his church. His pleas convinced the Anglo America Gold Mining Company to donate a flat, disused mine dump . No buildings. Noel Aldridge erected 6 large military tents on the land and took in boys.

 In that same year the great flu epidemic struck South Africa. Boys  had flu. Noel Aldridge gave his blankets to a boy with the flu, got the flu himself and died . It was the ultimate sacrifice.
For St Goodenough Noel Aldridge's ultimate sacrifice became the benchmark. Talk of "what I'm losing by doing this" and the Noel Aldridge story would always be raised to silence complaints. The work of the child and youth care worker was labelled "noble"....a "calling". It was expected . 

 Even now,  The deputy Minister of Social Welfare at the National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers (NACCW) said to child and youth care workers that they should not complain if they don't get paid, or if earn only a stipend.

 Noel Aldridge gave up his life, so what do you give up?..It's an unfair comparison. Organisational management Government policy and good  governance should eliminate at least most of our disadvantages as child and youth care workers
Noel Adridge did have a genuine "calling". But professional specialised knowledge, professionalisation and the career choice to use this, is legitimate reason to do child and youth care work. Being professional is not an add-on to a calling.The calling idea is used as an excuse to justify sacrifices because the calling idea is linked to money.

I was once told by a  Board of Management member "We don't want professionals.- they only want money like soccer players. We just want people who love the children"
But, 'Love is not enough"and professionals should be paid for what they are worth.

It really shouldn't mean sacrifice.

All this goes together with the other sacrifices. TIME... Day shift, night shift, 24/7, long hours - sometimes 12 hour shifts. The effects are not only fatigued brains and bodies, the money and the time issues have an effect on our own family life and our own children. We should never have to sacrifice our own children's parenting and care...but frequently we do. Living -in with our own children has its own particular sacrifices. Seldom, if ever, does management ask about how our own children are.
I once did a workshop presentation, discussion. The responses paralleled the concerns I had about having my own children raised in a residential facility. 

Much of this has, or is, changing as live-out staff and shift systems replace the old "Housemother" thinking. And yet in some places it still lingers on.

Living -in sounds like a bonus, but it has with it, it's own elements of sacrifice, It comes as a realisation , some time later, sometimes too late, that if you have need to change jobs or retire, you have no place to go. Cash salaries are reduced as the live-in accomodation and food are regarded as part of the overall package. This means that pension contributions are low aa are pension pay-outs. 

As I said, all of this can be changed. It doesn't have to be so. 

Now for the unchangeables. These really. I think, go with the territory. Dealing every day with the young people's emotional stress and tensions in the life-space has and does have an effect on our own emotional status This is where proper supervision is essential in child and youth care work. In addition repeated acts of verbal attack take their toll. Its a sacrifice against which employers should build in supportive measures to avoid emotional fatigue otherwise known as burn-out.

There is an up-side to all of this, Somehow the sacrifices can be experienced as worthwhile. Noel Aldridge saved a boy's life with his blankets, We save lives with our knowledge, skills and self - our professionalism.

A young man knocked on my door ,. Tall ...and he said "Mr Lodge. Do you remember me?"  I said "Yes" although I didn't recognise him at all. He came in. "I came to thank you." He said. I'm on my way to the Great Ormand Street Hospital in London to do an internship. I'm becoming a pediatric doctor and then a surgeon. Do you remember one evening you sat on the end of my bed and said "You are one young person I believe can really make it. You can rise above all of this. Well, that was a turning point in my life....from then..... I've come to thank you".

All the sacrifices faded in that moment. Somehow it all seemed worthwhile. Knowing what I know. Given a chance. I would do it all again.