“I grew up in a rural village with my grandmother. For most of that time, my mom was barely in the house - she would leave for long periods of time to go and look for work - and I had never known my dad. At the age of 15, I went to live with my aunt and her son in Durban.
My aunt lived in a small shack. When I got there, I could just tell that I was not welcome. My aunt didn’t allow me to sleep on the mattress with my cousin, she made me sleep in a chair. In a house where food was already scarce, I was just another mouth to feed. I was always the last person to eat, usually when there was nothing left. Soon they started withholding food, and I would go for three or four days with no food. I didn’t understand why my aunt would do those things. It was very difficult, because I was in a city where I didn’t know anyone besides the two of them. I had no one to cry out to and no one to help me. I was going to a new school and still trying to make friends. I was trying to navigate all of the changes that were happening in my life, and in the midst of everything that was going on, they left the place and I was abandoned, left all by myself. I didn’t know what to do after that. I felt like no one really cared about me, not even my own family. But I didn’t know that in the midst of all that loneliness and all that brokenness that God was working on a plan to rescue me.
That same year, things changed. Every Saturday at 8:30, I would see all the kids in the community going to this blue tent that was set up in a field nearby. Whether it was rainy, whether it was sunny, that tent was there. And one particular Saturday, I decided to follow the rest of the kids to the tent. That day I was stunned. There were games, there was music, and the kids were happy and having fun. But the thing that stunned me the most was that I got a hug from a white man. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now when I look back, I realise that that hug gave me hope. That hug changed my life.
That hug made me the person I am today. After a few weeks of consistently going to Kidz Klub, I was able to sit down with Uncle Dan and Auntie Rachel and tell them who I was and what was going on. They helped me graduate high school, found me a two year learnership, and after that hired me as a staff member at Key of Hope. Now I am the Program Manager.
Now, I am the one who is visiting kids at home every week, and I am able to pour back that love that was given to me. I am able to give that hug that gave me hope to kids that are going through a similar situation to mine.
I want to thank Uncle Dan and Auntie Rachel for listening to the call of God and moving to Durban… to come and rescue thousands of kids, but in the midst of those thousands, to rescue me.”
Dan & Rachel Smither
Founders,
