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Let me tell you a story about a remarkable woman named Victoria.
Victoria was born in 1957 in the Transkei. This is a very poor rural area, named a ‘homeland’ by the Apartheid government of South Africa. She grew up with three brothers and one sister. They have all died young, leaving 7 children needing care.
In her home today Victoria cares for 5 of her nieces and nephews, 2 of her own children Simphiwe and Sinazo, 3 grandchildren and Lutho.
Victoria’s youngest child, Onikho, died in 2006 aged 11 of bacterial meningitis. This was a sudden, traumatic death and Victoria has never recovered. Lutho is 8 years’ old and is handicapped. His alcoholic mother abandoned him when he was four, and Victoria took him into her crowded home, to love and care for him.
When apartheid came to an end in the early 1990’s there was a gradual mass migration from the rural areas to the towns and cities of South Africa. All ethnic groups were free to move where they wished, and slum areas around the cities grew. In January 1992 Victoria moved to Cape Town where she hoped to find a job. She wanted to be able to send money home to her family, her mother and her four children. Victoria’s husband left her shortly after her youngest was born.
It was not before 1995 that Victoria was able to earn enough money to return home to visit her family. She earned only R20 a day and a return ticket home was R300. In 2002 she still had not managed to secure a job that paid more than R750 a month. Victoria took extra work in her spare time in order to survive. Later that year Victoria found a job that paid her a better salary and in 2006 she was able to move out of the shack where she had stayed since arriving in Cape Town, and into her own house. A dream comes true!
Thanks to wonderful sponsors Victoria is able to look after all the children in her home, feed them and send them to school. She is also paying off the repayments on her house. Victoria manages to care for all her children despite her full-time work, and they are dependant on her care.
Victoria is a success!
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