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A historic outline for the period 1991 to 2003
This online history of The House Group is a project in development. To make 'in development' it sound more professional we like to think of it as a dynamic project.
The House started in 1990 at a time when the South African government refused to acknowledge that there were girl children or young women on the streets, and girl children in brothels, and that we had intravenous drug abusers on the streets, and that there was undercover Govt. sponsored subversive agencies operating brothels, and that there were gun running rackets to and from Mozambique and Angola from Hillbrow, and that young girls in prostitution were used in all of these rackets.
The House was a naïve player in this mess. We were oblivious to the undercurrents of the underworld. All we wanted to do was to get those girls out of the brothels, off the streets, and into a caring and nurturing environment. Needless to say things did not go smoothly. During the ten year period we buried more than 350 (three hundred and fifty) girls that we worked with but who got killed or died of drug related issues before they could get away from the pimps and street rackets. The House unknowingly stepped right into a boiling pot of vicious trade in humans, and these humans were young women and girls from age five to twenty.
It took ten years of constant pressure from our members and allies (nationally and internationally), before Govt. eventually succumbed and facilitated changes in legislation, laws and rules of social care that include the issues of the Girl Child in Need. Ten years, two regimes, three presidents and five Ministers of Welfare later...but it happened.
We hope that this history will provide other organisations and new start-ups with hope and inspiration, and perhaps, other children in need will benefit from it.
In writing this history we really try our best to make the story less romantic and less exhilarating than it was. Truth is much stranger than fiction, especially in this instance, so we do try to highlight only the most important 'milestones' and aspects crucial to the development of the programmes. What we tone down to bare essentials is the almost incredible stories of human courage and survival spirit of the girls, and problems, pains and desperation faced by volunteers and girls alike, and the sappy stories of joys and human hearts at play on those filthy streets of urine and used condoms. The House was faced opposing forces such as crooked cops, underground Govt. agencies, gangs, pimps, drug cartels, serial murderers, psychotic cops, failing Govt. systems, crooked politicians, and more - but the main victory over the years is the public heart that was softened up. For some dark reason the selling-prostitute (whether 5 years old or fifty years old) is reviled and hated by the public but the buying-prostitute (whether priest, Chief Executive Officer or politician) is regarded as more of a man, a real man. That remains to be the final frontier.
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How the founders stumbled on the problem and tried to help a few girls in their spare time. But the problem was much larger than anticipated and the social services system much more cruel than expected. |
1992 The need to formalise the program. First volunteers and first organisation structure. Govt opposition force us to 'go public' and expose the underworld of vice that the powers-that-be tried to hide from the people.
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1993 Public recognition and official retribution. The fight for survival starts in earnest as retribution from unofficial official 'street forces' threatens survival. |
1994 First democratic election in South Africa - Nelson Mandela president. We purchase our first property in the slum to circumvent the slum landlord's constant pressures and excessive demands. Murders of girls increase because 'footsoldiers' worry about the information the girls have. South African Police Services Child Protection Unit operates like a SWAT team and does excellent work but there are other forces, higher forces, at play.
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1995 The streets go insane. Democracy brings with it newfound freedom and expectations of immediate prosperity - as the politicians promised. Millions flood the cities in search of their wealth; crack cocaine comes in by the shipload as Nigerians and Afghanis flood the slums, and the entire scene changes from its usual madness to a new hyper speed over-the-top craze for quick sex, power, wealth and depravity. Live sex on stage accompanies 25% HIV+ population, and 3 000 boy children living in boxes on the street and thousands of girl children captured sticky, stinking, sleazy hellhole brothels guarded by illegal aliens with machine guns. |
1996 International recognition for The House Group as the first International Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children draws near. The Govt. battle against The House heats up as they try a final time to deny that the problems exist but they lose.badly. |
| 1997 By now we have three residential programs and our work spans over three cities. With help from the good people of the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands , the Dutch Govt. and an increasing volunteer base and great public support we keep programs running even though Govt. fails its duty. |
1998 Govt's will and ability to withstand the pressure crumbled and we gain official recognition (in Legislation and Policy), funding, and there's promise of more to come if we start behaving. We develop skills centres and new concepts of how to help the children in a country with 40% unemployment. |
| 1999 Govt uses their funding to manipulate us to adopt all kinds of weird care policies that are untested elsewhere, and absolutely unworkable in the third world, but we bite the bullet and give them what they want. Just to make life interesting Govt. changes these rules three times and we seem to be the only organisation to allow their silly interference. The Nelson Mandela presidency has not done much for the girl child. We get hopes that the next leader would do a better job. | 2000 Pres. Mbeki does a terrible job and makes several critical changes that sets the course absolutely against everything we and other organisations work for. Racism kills the day as Govt. gives entire budgets away to cousins and unknown entities that do not run programs. Hundreds of programs go belly-up and close because of Govt. interference in sources of funds and funding structures. |
| 2001 Govt. declares The House' management to be too white and give us three months to be black or lose funding. We defend ourselves against their claim and in the end they tell us that they are actually just sick of the founder members and they want them out of the country and The House Group must have a black majority in charge. We realise that the bullies with the money are simply abusing their powers and that the five white people on the various committees must leave. Fortunately we had almost seventy black children and about ten black staff members and about five black committee members that we can empower to take over the operations. We accept Dept. Welfare's deal that we will leave and they promise to give us the big bucks they withheld from the girls all those years. | 2002 A new era starts and fades as, things don't work out. 2003 Volunteers to the rescue. Things are going well. |