Princess Mkabayi Children's Home

At Breakfast on Sunday morning before we left Isandlwana we got chatting to our waitress and asked her if there where any children’s homes in the area. She did not really understand but said that there were none where children stayed day and night – that the only one that she knew about was in a nearby town called Nquthu and it was called Mkabayi.  We drove to Nquthu and drove through the town looking for this place which we did not see from the main rd. The town turned out to be a little larger than expect so we stopped and ask some people and eventually found the Princess Mkabayi Childrens Home.

It is a huge facility and when we drove up to the gate there where no signs of activity.  There was a guard at the gate who let us sign in without asking any questions and we parked and walked towards reception. Everything was locked up and started to walk around and look for signs of life anywhere.  We came across a young girl (around 12 yrs) cleaning out her mop at one of the garden taps. We asked her if we could speak to someone in charge and she gestured for us to follow her. She took as around the side of the building and we passed some children in the garden and courtyards. She disappeared down a passage and immerged a few minutes later with two older ladies. As this point we did really feel like we were intruding as we had no appointment and had simply just rocked up on a Sunday for a visit.

We explained to them that we were in the area on a tour and that we where curious to find out what they did there etc.  We told them a little bit about our rd to adoption and why it was that we have an interest in these homes. They were very obliging and friendly and proudly showed us the dining room, dorms etc.  They explained that the facility could cater for up to 90 children and there where currently 13 children in their care.

As we left I said to Rog that as a child I would be terrified to stay in such a large place with so few kids. We could see the boys sitting on the lawn playing on their own and the girls were inside playing in the courtyard but it was still very quiet.

They told us that they had a social worker who came during the week and said they would pass on our details to her after which we left and headed home.  It was a strange visit – I had completely not expected that. When I got home I researched the place and nothing really comes up. There is a file on the parliament.gov.za website where it talks about the Launch and renaming of facility to “Princess Mkabayi Child and Youth Care Centre” and its renovations. It says that "The estimated cost for renovations is R6 million" and it seems like that must have been done because you can see a lot of money was spent there.  It is wonderful so see money being spent on causes such as these.

It is hard to understand why such a facility would be so empty when there is such a massive need for care – don’t have any answers here but will let you know when I do?!