A Study of Shelters for Street Children from an Organizational ...

4.2.8 Supervision
The roles and responsibilities of managers and social workers were not clearly defined
and understood by individuals and at times there was a conflict of interest between the
two. Some shelter structures allowed for a social worker and a supervisor two
individuals with different professional skills. One professional social worker while the
other was a childcare worker. Such arrangements made it difficult to supervise shelters
activities and children because of different perspectives and opinions regarding
children living and/or working on the streets, i. e. disciplinarian or none disciplinarian
approach towards keeping and regulating the shelters. The situation in shelter C was
replicated in shelter A except that at times the social worker differed to an even larger
extent with the shelter manager. In shelter D the roles were totally confused. This
situation was indicative of the circumstances in which the shelter found itself, which
necessitated operational and managerial changes to the point that the shelter had
three different managers within the period of this study. The situation effected
negatively on the delivery of services and the shelter's harm reduction program was
overshadowed. Supervision in the shelters was a daunting task.
4.2.9 Activities
Shelter activities and programs were designed to cater for children's growth and
development. Consequently, shelters followed a regularised routine during weekdays
and also during the weekends. During weekdays, the day began at dawn 6.00 am or
sometimes earlier and finished after 9.00 pm when everybody went to sleep. Most
children in the three shelters attended either formal or informal learning. Shelters A and
D ran in-house literacy and numeracy programs and also life-skills learning. Child-care
workers of shelter D found that moving venues periodically from in-house classes and
away from the shelter, into the city environs, e.g. using Botanic Gardens and other city
parks, eased the children's boredom, improved their concentration and attention
(Basson, 2001 :2). The co-ordinator of shelter A acknowledged the contribution made
by the University of Durban Westville students who tutored on one-on-one basis. This
arrangement helped the shelter, as it did not have enough child-care workers. Shelters
A and C used volunteers to help with children's homework. Staff, partiCUlarly those
responsible for recreational activities arranged the types of games and activities which
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