News / Africa
Solani: Zim-born and SA-bred street child who made good!
07 Jul 2015 at 06:21hrs | Views
Wits law student, Solani Sibanda now has a promising life ahead of him and this is one of the good stories to be celebrated this youth month. The picture, however, was bleak when he was a homeless young boy roaming the streets of Johannesburg, eating from rubbish bins.
His problems started when his single parent mother died in 1999. He and his five siblings were split up and lost contact with each other until twelve years ago when they met up again. "After her death, I was adopted unofficially by different families… but through these adoptions I found myself a victim of child labour and abuse until I took to living on the streets of Johannesburg for six months," he remembers.
It was then that Johannesburg's Twilight Children, Child and Youth Care Centre entered and impacted his life. Eleven years ago, they came across the street child and took him in to provide him with care, food, clothing and shelter and to see that he received an education. He regards this intervention as life-changing. It enabled him to transition from a miserable, impoverished existence in which he even tried to commit suicide to escape, to one where he could develop a useful, responsible career. Sibanda never looked back. "Twilight, with the help of the funding from institutions like NMG Benefits enabled me to re-build my life from scratch," he says.
He proved to be academically gifted and became a school leader, serving as president of the Learner Representative Council and secretary for Gauteng District 10 government schools in 2011. Twilight Shelter also organised school holiday work experience with employee benefits company, NMG Benefits to enable him to earn a monthly allowance to meet personal costs.
Sibanda finally left Twilight Shelter in 2012, when he moved into residence at Wits to study law. Twilight Shelter saw that the promising young student's university fees were paid in full for four years through sponsorship and funding they sourced from both ELIX-IRR from the United Kingdom and NMG Benefits.
"All my progress and success would not have been possible without the help from Twilight Children and its funders."
He is now on the verge of completing his LLB and preparing for the working world in which he will be spending the next two years working, and studying, as a candidate attorney for a Gauteng law firm. In effort to give back and help other youth to achieve their goals and succeed through education; Solani tutors and mentors the Grade 12s currently living at Twilight.
"It is also through initiatives like the NMG Charity Challenge and the CEO SleepOut where the Andrew Warren, the CEO of MNG Benefits participated in recently in an effort to raise funds for children's home such as Twilight, that former street kids like me are able turn dreams into reality. For this, I am eternally grateful."
His problems started when his single parent mother died in 1999. He and his five siblings were split up and lost contact with each other until twelve years ago when they met up again. "After her death, I was adopted unofficially by different families… but through these adoptions I found myself a victim of child labour and abuse until I took to living on the streets of Johannesburg for six months," he remembers.
It was then that Johannesburg's Twilight Children, Child and Youth Care Centre entered and impacted his life. Eleven years ago, they came across the street child and took him in to provide him with care, food, clothing and shelter and to see that he received an education. He regards this intervention as life-changing. It enabled him to transition from a miserable, impoverished existence in which he even tried to commit suicide to escape, to one where he could develop a useful, responsible career. Sibanda never looked back. "Twilight, with the help of the funding from institutions like NMG Benefits enabled me to re-build my life from scratch," he says.
He proved to be academically gifted and became a school leader, serving as president of the Learner Representative Council and secretary for Gauteng District 10 government schools in 2011. Twilight Shelter also organised school holiday work experience with employee benefits company, NMG Benefits to enable him to earn a monthly allowance to meet personal costs.
Sibanda finally left Twilight Shelter in 2012, when he moved into residence at Wits to study law. Twilight Shelter saw that the promising young student's university fees were paid in full for four years through sponsorship and funding they sourced from both ELIX-IRR from the United Kingdom and NMG Benefits.
"All my progress and success would not have been possible without the help from Twilight Children and its funders."
He is now on the verge of completing his LLB and preparing for the working world in which he will be spending the next two years working, and studying, as a candidate attorney for a Gauteng law firm. In effort to give back and help other youth to achieve their goals and succeed through education; Solani tutors and mentors the Grade 12s currently living at Twilight.
"It is also through initiatives like the NMG Charity Challenge and the CEO SleepOut where the Andrew Warren, the CEO of MNG Benefits participated in recently in an effort to raise funds for children's home such as Twilight, that former street kids like me are able turn dreams into reality. For this, I am eternally grateful."
Source - Miranda Lusiba
