Studies in Social Services — The Barnardo Home

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The Care —

I noticed that most of the directresses, 'aunts,' and nurses who run the Home are graduates in their fields; and beyond that, courses are held for them in which they study the arts of education, administration, and discipline in theory and in practice, and it is on the basis of this study and attainment that they receive promotions and raises... Hence their care for the waifs exceeds all description, and anyone whosoever can sense it at once...

When I asked the 'aunts' whether they did not fear the children would be spoiled if they went too far in making them comfortable, they answered me:
— You may be right in what has struck you, but Dr. Barnardo wants it so.

And this answer, or this phrase, has an echo ringing through every corner of the Home; for whenever you ask one of the supervisors or nurses the reason for anything, she answers you at once, and in complete innocence, with the very same answer: 'Because Dr. Barnardo wants it so.'

Among the Doctor's other important injunctions was his insistence that his project not be called an institution or the like, but simply the word 'Home' — for it is no secret what a lofty meaning the Home carries in advanced societies. He likewise directed that the waifs be trained to call the supervisors 'my aunt' instead of 'my mother,' so as to be rid of everything of motherhood and of the feelings that word stirs in the hearts of those who have been deprived of the sweetness of natural motherhood.

Another example of the Home's care for the waifs is that it does not bind itself to any special system of dress, but makes the clothing varied in color and cut, so as to match the life of other children of families and private homes. Among the things I also noticed was that the children's washbasins are set low, so that they grow used to washing their hands and faces by themselves from earliest childhood.

The Waifs and Their Future —

Barnardo was not content merely to feed and house the waifs; he laid down for them a precise system covering every side of their life — psychological, educational, and religious — and covering their future as well... He required that they be classified according to their inclinations and sent to vocational and technical schools, so that the boys learn carpentry, weaving, commerce, metalwork, shoemaking, drawing, and building, and the girls learn nursing, the domestic arts, work in libraries and printing houses, secretarial duties, shorthand, and the like...

Nor does the Home's task end at this point, or when the waifs graduate from it; we find it following its children and taking them by the hand in their working life. It places them at once in posts and factories, and after they have settled into the new work it keeps them under observation for a further period, during which the necessary reports on each of them reach it. In this way it can remain in constant touch with its pupils on the one hand, and take those reports as a basis for correcting faults and raising standards on the other.

Barnardo gave special attention to forming the waif's character and to planting patriotic and honorable principles in his soul, that he might become a useful citizen, capable of bearing responsibilities in his public life and for the sake of his country... At the same time he did not forget the spiritual side, free of fanaticism for any creed or sect: he composed for his pupils a special prayer drawn from the various denominations, so as to avoid hateful bigotry and sterile controversy..

On this basis, everything the Home's chapel contains by way of furnishings has been stamped with the stamp of complete simplicity, and the pictures and stained glass in it are the work of the waifs themselves... Even the tablet that immortalizes the memory of Dr. Barnardo was made by the hands of the waif girls.

It is worth recording that this chapel was built through the donation of a wealthy lady who did not wish her name to be announced, contenting herself with a memorial tablet on which was written this sentence: 'This chapel is a memorial from a lady who donated its construction.'

The Hospital

Since the Home does not receive the injured or those with permanent infirmities, its hospital has been equipped to serve sudden illnesses of every kind...

It is a hospital modern in every respect, fitted with the newest instruments and apparatus... managed by a doctor and a lady doctor together with several nurses.

In this hospital there is a special room for the sun bath and another for massage, and several huts set well apart for contagious diseases... If it happens that one of the waifs is stricken with a contagious disease, they move him at once to one of those huts, each of which contains a bed, a chair, and a table; and the hut as a whole revolves mechanically to receive the sun's rays from every direction.

Gifts and Donations

The thing that stirs admiration, and cuts the cord of despair over the existence of goodness and good people in our world, is that this Home has no official character whatever, and no governmental quarter has any hand in it. It was founded upon gifts and donations, and it still grows and expands on what benefactors in every part of the world shower upon it in gifts and donations — above all those who lived in it, graduated from it, and prospered in their working lives, after tasting the bitterness of vagrancy and feeling for themselves this deadly disease in the heart of society and in the heart of the individual alike.

Nor are the donations confined to gifts in kind or in money only; they pour in upon the Home's administration in different forms — tickets for parties, plays, and cinemas... invitations from families for waif boys or girls to spend the holiday seasons or the week-end in their care, and other means of recreation and works of kindness... And if a family — usually one that has no offspring or children — wishes to invite one of the boys or girls of the Barnardo Home to spend a night or two with it, for instance, its request is not granted until after inquiry into the reputation and probity of the host or hostess, and only after the Home's administration is satisfied that no harm or wrong will befall the waif from accepting this invitation.

The Administration

Two bodies manage this vast charitable project. The first is purely women's, for the internal administration and the oversight of the Home's affairs and the like, such as the magazine and the bulletins... The second is mixed, in the character of a supreme body that supervises the important and external works, and takes care to keep in touch with the Home's graduates, offering them guidance, advice, and assistance of every kind in time of need.

In recent years the Home has been obliged to accept children who are not waifs — as when the father is away on military service and the mother lies ill in hospital — but these are rare and temporary cases, dealt with according to their measure.

This is a summary of Dr. Barnardo's Home — that single, independent effort, which embraces the largest family in the world: the number of its members at the present time has reached seven thousand waifs... besides 138,000 others who have already graduated from it, in less than the 85 years that have passed since its founding.