At Christine Revell Children’s Home we provide full-time care for up to 49 babies and children from birth to five years of age who have been referred to us by social workers and placed here by order of a children’s court. The children are either neglected, abandoned, abused, orphaned and are accepted at the home irrespective of HIV status, race or gender.

We strive to create a warm, friendly and homely environment, but our ultimate aim is to re-unite a child with its parents or the extended family should circumstances permit. Children are also placed into foster care with suitable families in the communities and when the proper legal channels have been followed children can also be adopted. These decisions are always taken with the full involvement of our social worker, the social worker who referred the child to us, the family and children’s courts.

Many of the children who arrive at our Home have not had the chance to grow and develop normally. A healthy and nutritious diet, suitable exercise and the mental development of our children are therefore of great importance. With this in mind we run a crèche weekdays from 08:00 to 11:45 where we develop the children mentally, physically, emotionally and socially.

There are three sections:

• Group A – birth to 18 months
• Group B – 18 months to 2 years
• Group C – 3 to 5 year olds
• We also run as a pre-primary school where the children are taught according to the Grade R syllabus, thus preparing them for the real school. This is important, because many of the children leave at the end of the year when they turn six and then go straight into Grade 1.