THE Aryan Benevolent Homes (ABH) has backpedalled on its decision to close the children's home in Chatsworth two weeks after they announced its closure.
The MEC for Social Development (DSD) in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbali Shinga, released its findings into the emotional and physical abuse at the ABH Children’s Home on September 17. A day later, the ABH announced its closure.
The investigation revealed that children starved and they were slapped with wet hands and wet towels on their bare backs. They were also assaulted with belts, pool sticks and broomsticks, and were subjected to emotional abuse. The children were also found to have been forced into following the religious practices of Hinduism, despite them being from different religious backgrounds.
On Monday, Thuba Vilane, the spokesperson for the KZN DSD, said they were in the process of making alternate arrangements for the children.
In a statement issued this morning, the ABH said: "We place on record that the allegations of child abuse at ABH Council are completely opposite to the values we hold dear such as the provision of deep emotional support.
“In April 2024 the first allegations of physical abuse surfaced at our Children’s Home from a child placed in our care by the Chatsworth Child Welfare. The child, in the presence of the placement social worker and the ABH senior childcare worker, reported the unfortunate instance of physical abuse.
"Our facility management team acted swiftly and began conducting investigations to verify the allegations. The allegations were confirmed by the ABH team on the evening of 13 May 2024. The perpetrators were suspended on 14 May 2024 and the Department of Social Development (DSD) informed on the very same day.
"In line with our commitment of safety and well-being, first for the children, counselling was made available, through professional volunteers as well as Childline. The cases were then reported to SAPS. The MEC visited our home on 2 July 2024 after a report claiming to expose the abuse appeared in the POST on 26 June 2024."
The statement said during this visit, on 2 July 2024, the MEC confirmed a task team would be appointed to investigate the ABH Children’s Home.
"We fully collaborated with the task team investigation, the findings of which were presented to us on 17 September 2024. The ABH sincerely apologises to our children, their parents, the community we serve, stakeholders, and donors. We take full responsibility and accountability of the findings in the report and commit to total transparency in the implementation of our corrective measures to ensure that this will never occur again.
"We are aware of the rumours in the media as well as on social media purporting that our children are not well fed and would like to confirm that all our children are provided with three healthy meals a day, which are specially curated around the recommendations from a dietician.
"Running a children's home is a labour of love and a deeply caring responsibility, and we take our duty to provide a safe, nurturing environment for vulnerable children with the utmost seriousness.
"The DSD task team report also highlighted that ABH conducts background checks on staff members, in line with our commitment to safeguarding children. However, we acknowledge that there was a lapse in our internal procedures with respect to eight staff members. We deeply regret this oversight and are taking full responsibility to ensure that such mistakes do not recur.
"We are strengthening our staff vetting processes to guarantee stricter adherence to safety protocols moving forward. We are aware of the broad allegations of religious bias or differentiation within the ABH and on hearing these allegations, as the council, we investigated and can guarantee that this is not the case."
The ABH reassured the community that there was freedom of religion and faith at its children’s home.
"The home was founded by a Hindu organisation that follows 10 universal principles, including religious tolerance and non-sectarianism. In addition, we collaborate with various religious leaders to ensure that freedom of religion and belief systems are practiced.“
In response to the recommendations of the report and in full compliance with the Children’s Act No. 38 of 2005, the ABH said it had implemented the following corrective measures:
● Disciplinary action has been taken against the staff members involved, with those found guilty being dismissed to ensure the safety of the children.
● Comprehensive retraining of all staff has commenced to reinforce our core values of care and protection.
● A stringent follow-up on the background check processes is in progress to prevent any future oversights.
● The Board remains committed to continuing its oversight role through additional controls and compliance measures
"The ABH council deeply regret that these incidences took place during our leadership and wish to assure our children, parents, community leaders and stakeholders as well as donors that stringent corrective measures are in place and action plans are currently being implemented to ensure the highest standard of care our beneficiaries will continue to receive."
The ABH said it appointed Monica Woodhouse from Give a Child a Family, a child protection organisation, and her team, to support them with the implementation of the corrective measures.
This, they said, was to ensure sustainability of the home moving forward.
"During the past few weeks we have been inundated with community calls, to please keep our children’s home open, with careful consideration and consultation with DSD together with the implementation task team, we will do everything in our power to remain open.
"We extend our gratitude to DSD and all relevant authorities for their guidance and assistance throughout this challenging period. Their support has been invaluable in helping us improve our duty of care and service, to ensure the highest level of care for all children."
The statement said the ABH was focused on rebuilding trust with the children and the community at large while continuing its mission of service and care for the most vulnerable.