 >History
History of Princess Alice Adoption Home
The history of Princess Alice Adoption Home is closely intertwined with that of Johannesburg Child Welfare Society.
JCWS is one of the oldest and largest NGOs in South Africa, having been founded in 1909 by the Mayor and Mayoress of Johannesburg, Mr and Mrs Charles Chudleigh and other leading citizens. The list of office bearers in those years read like a page out of a “Who’s Who”. The first president was Viscountess Gladstone and the Vice Presidents were the Prime Minister and his wife, Mr and Mrs Louis Botha as well as Lady Rose Innes. Members included Lady Selbourne, Mrs Perry, Sir Abe Bailey and the Schumacher family who were the original landowners of the site, known as the Pallinghurst Property on which both the Hope Home and PAAH were built. JCWS leases the land from the Trust of the Hope Convalescent Home for Children.
In 1924 HRH Princess Alice, the Countess of Athlone, a grand daughter of Queen Victoria became the President of the Children’s Aid Society, which is the former name of JCWS. Princess Alice held this position until early 1931 when she and her husband, Lord Athlone, who had been the Governor-General of South Africa, returned to England. She was a person who cared deeply and was conscious of the difficulties of those less fortunate than she as is obvious from her often quoted statement “Civilisation only begins when we feel that a neglected child is a personal reproach to each of us”.
Princess Alice had an enormous influence on the development of the Child Welfare movement in South Africa.
In 1928, an adoption committee was inaugurated which hoped to regularise adoptions by safeguarding the adopter as well as the adoptee.
During March 1929, HRH Princess Alice presided over a well-attended meeting at the Carlton Hotel where she appealed for funds to build a home for babies awaiting adoption.
As a direct result of this appeal, the executors of the late Dr Kerr Muir’s estate came forward with a generous donation of 3,000 pounds to build the home. The only stipulation being that the house should be named after him and a plaque erected to this effect, but it would be known as the Princess Alice Adoption Home.
The home was designed by Mr KR Mackenzie, and there was much concern that it would not be built and equipped in time to ask HRH Princess Alice to open it before her departure from South Africa.
The home was, however, opened by Princess Alice on 20 October 1930; in that first year she gave a personal donation of 100 pounds for the running of the home.
Other major donors included the Argus Printing Works, the Central Mining Investment Corporation, Anglo American Corporation of SA, Union Corporation, the Barnato Group and New Consolidated Gold Fields, and the Pretoria Younger Set.
The total donations amounted to ₤1 102 12/6.
Babies selected for the Home had to meet strict criteria.
I quote from the Annual Report of 1935:
“A Princess Alice Baby must:
a) be the first illegitimate or legitimate child (strong emphasis on morality of the mother),
b) have a satisfactory family history on both sides for two generations
c) be physically sound,
d) have no history in either family of mental weakness, and
e) show a negative reaction to the Wasserman (TB test) both for the mother and child.
These rules are very strictly enforced with the result that the babies are adopted into homes where they will receive every opportunity in life in addition to loving care.
There are always more applicants for children than the Home or Society can satisfy, were it not for the tragic history too often attached to the destitute children in our care, there would be many more homes gladdened by the advent of an adopted child.
During the past year, 67 Princess Alice babies have gone to all parts of the Union, to Southern and even to Northern Rhodesia. The last toddler to leave the Home, flew to his new parents by plane, a very up-to-date variant on the stork of tradition”.
These were the words of the Chairman of Princess Alice, Norah Martin who was a personal friend of Princess Alice.
The home could accommodate 10 babies at any given time, the committee, which consisted of volunteers was responsible for the screening of the mothers which ensured that only the best babies would be admitted, as well as screening and doing home visits to potential adopters. These adopters also had to meet a very exacting set of circumstances before being considered eligible. The Chairman is quoted as saying that “the work demands great discretion and judgement and a slow building up of public confidence”.
Volunteers were the pioneers of the Welfare sector and it wasn’t until the late 1930s that professional training for social workers was offered by the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1931 the Kerr Muir trustees made a further donation of 1,000 pounds, specifically for the establishment of a garden and towards running costs of the home.
In 1940, 10 years after the founding of Princess Alice Adoption Home only 24 babies were adopted with 70 families being on the waiting list to receive children. Expenses for that year were 1 855 pounds, 12 shillings and 5 pence.
There was a huge amount of correspondence that had to be dealt with, 2 050 letters had to be dispatched, so clearly the volunteer committee was kept very busy.
Just prior to the 25-year celebration (1955), Princess Alice Adoption Home saw a decline in the number of babies requiring admission, which was put down to the possibility that many were being privately adopted. The committee questioned the justification to continue to provide this service and made the bold decision to experiment by offering limited accommodation for young unwed mothers for the last 2 – 3 months of their pregnancy.
In those days, families were very keen to hide pregnant unwed daughters from public view. 1955 saw 77 babies and 13 mothers admitted to the home. The cost of running the home that year was 4 031 pounds. The fundraising activities included street collections, book and cake sales and imaginary fetes, as well as the income of 241 pounds from the tombola stall at the Mayoress’ fete.
October 1980 saw the home celebrate its 50th birthday, with the waiting list for white adopters being closed because of a declining number of babies. 40 adoptions were granted although 74 babies had been accommodated during that year. 33 moms had also used the facility.
The late 80s saw the face of adoptions changing with a huge decline in white babies available for adoption as many adopters were going the private adoption route. However, there were an increasing number of babies from other racial groups requiring care, with many being abandoned. Social Workers took over the recruitment and screening of adopters as it was difficult for volunteers to visit Soweto, Alexandra and other townships.
The task of fundraising became rather onerous for the volunteers and in January 1994, JCWS appointed its first manager at Princess Alice, Dian Lavery. Dian was responsible for raising funds to meet the Home’s operational costs with the help of a voluntary fundraising committee. Dian’s role was also to manage the home with the Nursery Supervisor being specifically responsible for the physical care of the babies.
As the need for accommodation for babies increased, a specific building fund was launched to extend the nursery so that we could offer care to 24 babies from birth to 15 months. However, during April 2008, the Department of Environmental Health granted a further upgrade to 30 babies to the age of two years.
In our 75th year, 63 babies and 16 moms were accommodated. What has changed is that many babies spend much longer periods of time with us as they often have health problems. Last year saw Princess Alice Adoption Home becoming an anti-retroviral treatment site under the supervision of our then resident after-hours doctor, Karl Technau, for those babies requiring treatment. Moms that come to stay are usually totally destitute. Work is undertaken with them to improve their self-esteem and an economic empowerment initiative has been introduced and is currently being expanded.
Volunteers remain an integral part of the home providing much needed stimulation and interaction with the babies. Professional volunteers provide medical and physiotherapy services and the Red Cross students assist with baby care tasks.
In the past 78 years approximately 5, 000 babies and 3, 000 moms have been provided with care.
|