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A homeless child deserves love and comfort, just like any other child. That’s the thinking of Street Children Operation Siza (Scops), an organisation working to improve life for homeless and abandoned youngsters. Its approach is societybased, seeking to rekindle ubuntu in the community so “everybody sees the homeless child as their own”, said Khehla Ngcobo, of Scops. “The intention is to transform the mindsets of the public . . . In African culture, a child belongs to society. “If a child finds himself without parents or a home, the community takes it upon itself to protect and raise the child,” said Ngcobo.

Scops was established by a group of individuals “from all walks life, of different cultural and religious inclinations” in 2006 and now takes care of more than 200 children daily. “Instead of starting another street children organisation, we decided we would identify gaps in existing organisation and together work at making it better,” said Ngcobo. Scops is now busy acquiring a R7-million building to house street children. Miyere Miyandazi, a Massai who works with Scops, said the organisation was about Africans caring for abandoned African children, thus “redeeming the African society from peril”. “This is not about whether there are sufficient resources for street children to be fostered – we are the resources.