In 2001, Hope and Homes for Children arrived in South Africa with four local partners and one conviction: no child needs to grow up in an orphanage. Twenty-five years on, South Africa has committed to ending institutionalisation of children by 2030.
This is how it happened.
What we found: South Africa’s hidden crisis
When Hope and Homes for Children began work in South Africa in 2001, the scale of the problem was largely invisible. There was no national count of how many children were living in orphanages or institutions. There was no data, no system, no picture.
We set out to change that. Working in collaboration with teams of veteran social workers across all nine provinces, we undertook the first national assessment of children in South African institutions.
The findings were stark.
At the time of our assessment in 2015, an estimated 21,000 children were living in 345 registered Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs) across South Africa. By 2022, the Department of Social Development’s own data counted 15,552 children in registered institutions.
But the most important finding wasn’t the number. It was what sat behind it.
80% of children in orphanages are not orphans. They have living family members and they are separated because of poverty, violence, and the absence of support, not because their families don’t want them. The system has let them down.
The child protection system in South Africa was reactive and institution-reliant. When families faced crisis, the system reached for institutions. When it should have been reaching for families.
What institutionalisation does to children
The harm caused by orphanages and institutions is not incidental. It is structural.
Across South Africa, children reach only 43% of their developmental potential by the age of 18. This is a Human Development Index figure that reflects the country’s systemic failure to support families and children.
For children in institutions, the picture is worse still: constant staff turnover and the absence of consistent caregivers create lasting attachment disruption and psychological harm. And institutions, by their nature, concentrate vulnerability: closed environments with weak oversight create the conditions for abuse, trafficking, and exploitation.
As our own research has consistently shown, the longer a child remains in an institution, the harder reunification becomes. Institutional placement is not a bridge back to family. Without active intervention, it becomes a wall.
Building the solution: the AFS-KHUSELA model
Understanding the problem was only the beginning. The harder question was: what actually works?
Over the next decade, working closely with local communities, social workers, and the Gauteng Department of Social Development, through two formal Memoranda of Understanding, we developed a community-based approach to preventing family separation before it happens.
The model identifies vulnerable families early, provides intensive, tailored support, and keeps children out of institutions altogether. Where separation had already occurred, it creates safe, supported pathways back to family and community care.
In the Cape Flats communities of the Western Cape, some of the most challenging urban environments in South Africa where conflict often happens in the form of gang violence, the model was combined with the Cure Violence approach. The result: a 43% reduction in violence over four years. Getting children out of institutions doesn’t just change children’s lives. It changes communities.
In December 2025, the Care Reform Manual developed through this work was formally handed to the National Department of Social Development. This is a very positive signal that the model is no longer a pilot. It is now the national approach.
The results: 25 years of impact
Since 2001, Hope and Homes for Children’s work in South Africa has delivered:
- 8,600+ families supported to stay together in Gauteng
- 13 community-based services developed
- A 43% reduction in violence in Cape Flats communities
- A national model, now in government hands, with a roadmap to all nine provinces
The moment that changed things: South Africa’s 2025 commitment
In November 2025, something historic happened. South Africa hosted its first National Care Reform Summit. The Summit was convened by the Department of Social Development, with OCOF HHCSA and civil society partners, in Johannesburg.
In the room: Minister of Social Development Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe and her deputy, national and provincial government leaders, traditional leaders from Nkandla and the Eastern Cape, civil society organisations, development partners all alongside young people with lived experience of care.
The Summit produced a collectively signed outcomes document: a national commitment to end institutionalisation of children in South Africa by 2030.
The specific commitments include:
- A moratorium on placing children under three in institutions by November 2026
- A costed National Policy on Universal Family Care by 2027
- A multi-sectoral national coordinating structure, co-chaired by government and civil society
- Funding redirected from institutions to prevention and family-based care
- Widespread CYCC closures, a 75% reduction in the deficit of universal nurturing parenting care, and universal family-based alternative care by 2030
South Africa also endorsed the Global Charter on Children’s Care Reform joining 30+ countries and 120+ organisations committed to ending the use of institutions as settings for children’s alternative care.
What still has to happen
The commitment is real. The distance between commitment and delivery is also real.
The Children’s Amendment Bill , which would embed deinstitutionalisation as a legal obligation in South African law, was sent back to the Department of Social Development for redrafting in August 2024, creating a significant legislative delay.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the number of children in institutions is still rising, not falling. Budget flows remain heavily skewed toward funding institutions and not family-based care.
The question is not whether South Africa should end the institutionalisation of children. The policy says so. The law aspires to it. The evidence demands it. The question is whether we will act with enough urgency, accountability, and political courage to make it happen in time.
That is the work ahead. And it is why we are still here.
How you can help
Twenty-five years ago, a small team arrived in South Africa with a belief and a model. Today, that model is national policy. But the children still waiting in institutions who are separated from their families simply cannot wait for 2030.
Help us make sure 2030 isn’t just a date. Donate today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are children in orphanages in South Africa?
Most children in South African orphanages are not there because they have no family. Research consistently shows that 80% of children in orphanages are not orphans they have at least one living family member. They are placed in institutions because their families face poverty, violence, or a lack of access to support services, and the child protection system defaults to institutional placement rather than strengthening the family. Hope and Homes for Children’s work since 2001 has focused on changing this keeping families together through early, community-based intervention rather than removing children into institutions.
What is South Africa's plan to end orphanages?
In November 2025, South Africa committed to ending institutional care of children by 2030 at the National Care Reform Summit in Johannesburg. The Summit outcomes document which was signed by government ministers, civil society, and young people with lived experience sets out a phased roadmap: a moratorium on placing children under three in institutions by November 2026; a national policy on family care by 2027; redirected funding from institutions to families; and widespread institution closures by 2030. South Africa also endorsed the Global Charter on Children’s Care Reform alongside 30+ countries.
What does Hope and Homes for Children do in South Africa?
Hope and Homes for Children has worked in South Africa since 2001, operating under the name One Child One Family – Hope and Homes for Children South Africa (OCOF HHCSA). The organisation focuses on three areas: preventing family separation through early community-based support; helping children already in institutions transition safely back to family care; and generating evidence and influencing national policy to make care reform permanent. Since 2001, HHC has supported more than 8,600 families in Gauteng to stay together, and the community-based model it developed, AFS-KHUSELA, has been formally adopted by the national government.
What is deinstitutionalisation of children?
Deinstitutionalisation of children is the process of moving children out of residential institutions, such as orphanages or children’s homes, and into family-based or community-based care. It involves both preventing new placements by supporting vulnerable families before crisis point, and transitioning children already in institutions back to family care in a planned and supported way. Research consistently shows that institutional care causes developmental, emotional, and psychological harm to children, even in well-resourced settings. Deinstitutionalisation is now recognised as both a child rights imperative and a policy standard by the United Nations and multiple governments worldwide.
How does family-based care compare to orphanages for children?
Evidence consistently shows that children in family-based care have significantly better developmental, health, and wellbeing outcomes than those in institutional settings. Across South Africa, children reach only 43% of their developmental potential by age 18, a national Human Development Index figure that reflects systemic failure to support families. For children in institutions the harm is compounded further: they face higher rates of attachment disruption, psychological harm, and exposure to abuse and trafficking. Family-based care, whether with birth families, kinship carers, foster families, or other community-based arrangements, provides the consistent, individual attention and stable relationships that children need to thrive. The global research consensus, endorsed by UNICEF and backed by decades of evidence, is unambiguous: family is always the better option.
