For Three individuals, positive outlooks can undermine life’s greatest misfortunes.
SINETHEMBA CHILDREN’S CENTRE, PORT ELIZABETH SOUTH AFRICA – The screams of laughter echoed through the wind, as the thud of the ball on the earth was like a new African drum beat. It may have been their big brown eyes consumed in the colors of the ball or South African heat but the faces of 23 children, from the ages three to 22 a few minutes after the receiving their first ever soccer ball has an overwhelming warmth that rises through your body.
(Photo Credit: Jill Drew and Mark Freeman)
Such excitement, the endless gratitude for simple fifteen-dollar soccer ball is a rarity in a World consumed by technology. A gift taken for granted by children in western cultures, but for these children it’s an opportunity to have a future. A future filled with dreams, opportunities and their childhood, which was taken away from them the instance they became children of the streets.
Child abandonment is a reoccurring problem in South Africa, a never ending cycle, struggling to be broken. In 2017 there were 19.6 million children under the age of 18 living in South Africa, 2.8 million of those children were orphans.
This often stems from the AIDS epidemic, the most advanced stage of a HIV infection. Like a raging fire it takes control of your body, slowly deteriorating all functions until you die. About 32 percent of orphans in Africa have lost their parents and family to this disease and many of these children suffer from the disease as well.
If it was not for the actions of Individuals like Mark Freeman, Jill Drew and Signoria Qolani who proved no matter what we face in life, we can always do something to help others, particularly the future.
Where it all Began
She was the mastermind behind this place, the petite woman hidden in the shadows. She was smiling watching the children play around her, but her body told a different story. Her shoulders permanently hunched weighted down by the enormity of a life she has lead. Working from dusk till dawn, 20 hours a day her eyes were almost hidden by the dark circles surrounding them, but she was strong; fearless and determined like a lion hunting it’s prey, she will never give up on these children. Her name is Signoria Qolani and Sinethemba Children’s Centre is her baby. She herself was a child of the streets. From a very young age she would just roam the streets chased away from her home and no one cared. Her mother an alcoholic and her father unknown.
For Signoria her fate was sealed the day she was branded as a street child. A prominent Businessman in the village raped her. She was 16. Silence was forced upon her, with no one to tell and nowhere to go, the birth of a baby boy Mpumsi, was a constant reminder of the Businessman’s haunting presence. On many occasions she tried to get rid of him, the bad omen she felt was placed upon her. Something she wishes she could take back. She was moved by welfare from home to home, displaced and confused she would run away to the only place, which appeared to be comfortable, the streets. It wasn’t until her mother passed away a year later her fate turned for the better and it all began with a farm family in Green Bushes just on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. She finally had found a home, a place of warmth something foreign in her world. Unexpectedly she also found love, with the eldest son 10 years her senior with whom she married and had two children with.
Signoria and her husband have spent most of their life helping street children, so they wouldn’t have to face the same fate as she did. Their desire to help grew further when Signoria was faced with the gravest of challenges – losing a child.
Mpumsi, her first born, grew into a lovely young man. With a successful career at Woolworths, it seemed he defied all odds. But Mpumsi’s full of life nature would soon come to an abrupt end. His wife, running off with her boyfriend, had him killed, leaving Signoria devastated.
Signoria says part of her soul was removed. She felt her life had lost meaning. But her need and passion to help children to not share her story and her sons story became her life's work. Using an abandoned outbuilding of a church in the centre of town Signoria worked endlessly to feed, wash, cut hair, cloth and attend to sick street children. She then found two-abandoned pre fabricated police stations and after she had been giving the all clear to occupy the space, the next chapter for Signoria would begin.
Following her dream, her husband resigned from his job and with his pension money, 50,000 Ran or $5000 Australian they create a home from abandoned children called Sinethemba Children’s Centre. Rebuilding from scratch, Signoria created a haven for street children, she did not want to see children sleeping on the streets like she did and she wanted to offer them a better life with a good education so they could become self sustainable one day.
The New Journey
In 2006 he went on a trip of a lifetime with his partner to South Africa. He is a flight attendant, travelled to all parts of the World but nothing compared to this, entering a World so far removed from the luxuries we have in Australia. The red rock gravel stuck to his clothes, as bits of rubbish and ruble crushed under his feet. He wanted to see the real South Africa not the image presented by the media and thanks to a local woman named Precious his passion to help others blossomed.
Mark Freeman has now worked for 13 years in raising money for Sinethemba.
In recent years Mark has recruited others to assists with Sinethemba, including one of the strongest and bravest woman he knows.
"Positive spiritual energy is the key to life and I think after everything I’ve gone through I just want to do anything to help others.”
She is a woman many would admire. The infectious smile of this mother of three would never have given away she had spent most of the night having chemo. She talks with such passion and poise but hidden underneath the dark circles in her eyes is the reality she has terminal cancer. It's a word you never particularly want to hear it throws your whole life upside down, into topsy turvy land, especially when you’ve been in remission for five years.
It began as a simple bike ride with a friend in June 2015, but ended in a broken arm. Struggling to breathe she was taking to hospital, where they x-rayed her for broken ribs. But what came next was unexpected an early call from her doctor on the Saturday at 8:30am.
Doctors never call on Saturdays. The dreaded call became a permanent ringing noise in the silence, never to be forgotten.
After further scans they revealed the worst outcome, 12 tumors in her lungs and three in her lymph nodes.
Jill Drew believes fate made her fall off her bike, a sign to give her a different outlook on life. It’s been seven years since she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and thanks to a new treatment trial at Peter Mac she has been given a new lease on life. “ These people can’t afford anything, they have nothing and we can all help, do our little bit because everything counts.” So her new lease of life begins with these children.
These two individuals are selfless human beings, but in their eyes they see something different.
Whats Next .....
“We want these kids to grow up educated to have discipline, self worth and to grow confidence.”
Thanks to the work of these three individuals, all with different stories and challenges, they have given these children an opportunity to achieve their dreams, whether they are big or small. Whether it’s through the gift of a small ball or calculator, to washing machines, proper drivers licence and a bus to take the kids to and from school. Money is a precious thing in this World but its value at Sinethemba has so much more importance. But the stigma behind donations to orphanages has created an issue.
But this hasn't stopped them from making a difference, striving for change.
“Providing these kids with an education, the opportunity to go to university or whatever they want it 100 per cent all we ask for. Before we go over we always ask what the kids require, whether its calculators or washing detergent we buy it for them.” – Mark
And with these goals the impossible can be achieved.
“These people don't get the opportunity to leave Port Elizabeth. Everything requires money and they don't have it. So we would love to do excursions with the children, take them to the beach, to see the elephants there are things that they just don't get to do.” - Jill
There is one message they want people to remember and is the most important of them all.
(Photo Credit: Jill Drew and Mark Freeman)