Andile

This photo of 3yr old Andile arriving at our office door a few weeks ago has now become a nearly daily occurence. Andile is pretty much left to her own devices during the day. She lives behind the centre and so she is often hanging about with other children around the centre and then come the afternoon she oftens sneaks in and down the corridor to see us. Many of the children here come from difficult home circumstances but we know about Andile from Seed of Hope's link with the her mum over the years. Her mum is on her own with three children and so is working to support them, she also has a drinking problem and so the children are often left to fend for themselves. Andile regularly attends our kids programme even though she is too young which means she gets a meal every afternoon and somewhere safe to be. She has fallen into a pattern of coming to us after lunch before simunye starts. She is often snotty, dirty, thirsty and hungry (but then that is often the case for a lot of the children who come). We have fallen for her though and so will stop working and play with her. We also give her food and drinks,so as you can imagine she now loves hanging out with us.

She also loves our office chairs that are mostly broken but still move so one of her only english words is 'push' which is repeatedly endlessly after she pulls herself into one of the chairs.


She is also a real character and loves being silly and cheeky!


We are praying for her mum and her family and we saw an answer to those prayers this week. Andile's mum came into the centre and after meeting with Michelle, one our nurses she sees regularly, has agreed to attend a parenting course the week after next. We are praying that she will turn up and that the course will have a huge impact on Andile's family.