CORONA SCHOOL ESCAPE...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Volumes of text on social media dedicated to the Corona virus, especially when and after the first case was reported in South Africa. A 38 year old man  had returned from Italy, felt the symptoms and went to the doctor in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province. Both were quarantined in their own homes. The schools of his two children suspended classes as were all extra-mural activities. The search for the other 10 people in the Italy party has been completed and one other is positive.

You know the signs of panic. Straight talk - "we're in trouble", lack of trust in the South African Health system, coupled with jokes. Jokes always accompany deeply felt seriousness and fear.

Corona virus, they say, can mainly affect the elderly and children. As professional carers of children it must be assumed that programmes and facilities are gearing up in case of epidemic. It goes without saying that transmittable conditions and diseases in tightly bedded dormitories and group homes for example are formulas for their spread. 

Experience of young people's attitude to transmittable conditions was to do with their potential to " escape school". Head-lice required a 'no school' period until the district nurse provided a certificate of clearance. Young people with head-lice would collect them in a bottle and sell them to an eager market.  Guaranteed, ..infection and no school. One young person with pink-eye sells rubs on the affected eyes.  The purchaser then rubs on his/her eyes with the contaminated hands.  No school again.

Can Corona become a saleable commodity to escape school?

The approach to German Measles was somewhat different. In childhood it is fairly mild whilst the adult version in pregnancy is said to have an adverse affect on the unborn child. When German Measles appeared, the deliberate spread among the girls was ignored as it provided its own immunity against later contraction. 

Measles itself once brought the facility into quarantine. The local health authorities, once the number of measled young people reached a certain proportion, declared an epidemic and put the whole facility into quarantine. I seem to remember that it lasted 14 days, (similar to the Carona virus quarantine period). The building was ribboned off with warning ribbons, the entry gates similarly. No-one was to enter or leave the except the doctor or the district nurse. Deliveries of food and goods were deposited at the gate. A member of staff went to collect them. We had resident staff, so the problems of quarantined staff wasn't that much of a problem.In a live-out shift system, staffing would have been have been another issue.

If, with the Corona virus, one young person contracts, full quarantine is a given. Could be that now, contingency planning and thinking needs to happen on the " What If " scenarios. Social media shows Europe supermarket shelves to be empty as people make contingency plans. The panic is shifting the usual into the extra ordinary. 

In the early days of the Hiv/AIDS pandemic especially in sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in South Africa, the statistics were and are still, scary.  The number of children and young people with the virus was estimated into the millions. Child-headed households were predicted as young parents died of AIDS related diseases. 

The 'gearing up' then in South Africa was widespread, well strategised, well orchestrated. Prevention was ABC, Abstinence, Be faithful and Condomise. But once born with or contracted the spread through body fluids instituted 'universal precautions'. Child and youth care workers were a target for education and training throughout the country. The community-based national model known as Isibindi was devised and rolled out to provide professional services to the children and young people affected of infected with the virus. It still does. I remember child and youth care workers saying" Hiv/AIDS..Isibindi. Hiv/AIDS..Isibindi,..Hiv/AIDS..Isibindi.. I'm tired of hearing about it".

There was an opinion that education didn't help. I think it did.

Let's talk then the Corona virus on our door-step in South Africa and extensively in some other countries. We are in an early enough position in South Africa to 'gear-up' in child and youth care now.

By now, followers of social media have been exposed to the universal precautionary measures that are said to restrict the spread of CVID-19 and protect ourselves. I saw on set of illustrations showing how to wash the hands with soap for 15-20 seconds. Guess it's like the demonstrations we would give of fitting a condom to which child and youth care workers were exposed and which were made available nation wide. We were trained to teach children and young people the universal precautions in the avoidance and cleaning We taught the young people in our care all that we knew.

The point is that South Africa is forewarned. South Africa is on the launching pad and needs now to prepare for take=off in the world of child and youth care. By "take off", I mean the launching of programmes in our facilities based on what we learnt through Hiv/AIDS . Programmes and facilities are advised to 'gear-up' and make contingency plans just to be on the side of caution.

Child and youth care workers, because of our unique life-space contact with children need now to be educated, trained and supported. Children and young people need to be educated, trained and supported. 

Gear-up... Plan before Corona is yet another school escape plan.