From streets to success – lost in time, but found in time

Windermere-based non-profit-organisation I Care is working to assist street children in Durban. Their goal is to instil healthy life skills and a good work ethic into the children who pass through their system. In a four-part series, Berea Mail’s Danica Hansen hears from four men who have turned their lives around with I Care’s help. 

IMAGINE a world where time doesn’t exist. A child who never learnt the days of the week at nursery school. This was the life of Simphiwe Mthiya at seven years old.

“I didn’t know anything because I never went to school. I couldn’t read or speak English. I didn’t know how to tell time; I didn’t know the days of the week or the months of the year. I was clueless; I had nothing in my head. I only knew my name, my surname, my age and my mother’s name. Nothing more, nothing less,” recalls Mthiya.

Born in Johannesburg, Mthiya (24) arrived in KwaZulu-Natal at three months old. His mother passed away when he was just five years old.

“My mother was sick. She had to come back home. She had a problem with asthma, and it was too cold in Johannesburg. My mother passed away in 2003. I didn’t know much about my father – he wasn’t at my mother’s funeral. I met him in 2019,” said Mthiya.

After losing his mother, he grew up with his grandmother in Ndwedwe, north of Durban, where he encountered many challenges.

“[One of my relatives] was drinking alcohol and smoking too much. Things weren’t going so well. I decided I needed to go out and try to find other family members. I stayed in Verulum for six months where I made friends with another child,” said Mthiya.

Following his new friend’s lead, the pair travelled to Durban where he lived on the streets from 2007.
“We were staying on the street in the Point area. Some people tried to help me find my family, but I never found them. By 2008, my friend was shot and killed. He was a brother and a friend to me,” said Mthiya.

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He survived, living with a group of children in the Point area near Addington Hospital.

“Shelter, clothes and blankets to sleep with – these were things I never had. We had to make our own. We sewed them with our own hands. We would take a plastic bag and some boxes – anything that could keep us warm – and use it as a sleeping bag,” he said.

“If someone had a problem with you and wanted to kill you, they would just light the plastic and burn you. Safety was something I never knew. I slept with one eye open,” he added.

Turning point

In 2008, he started to attend I Care programmes.
“My life changed. There was a volunteer at I Care who came from the Netherlands. He was a guardian angel to me. He taught me how to read,” says Mthiya.

After attending I Care programmes for three months, Mthiya was placed in the I Care children’s home and began schooling.
“It was fantastic. They make sure we enjoy each and every day. I realised so much about myself. We always felt so loved. So many volunteers would visit us,” he said.

Also read: Street Lit book vendor – from homeless to municipal chair

By 2010, he relocated to his aunt’s house in Inanda and started attending public school. Mthiya is now studying toward a career in the hospitality industry. He hopes to work on the MSC cruise ships one day.
He urged the community to show kindness to street children. “Everyone deserves a second chance,” he said.

I Care urges the community not to give street children money but rather donate to organisations, such as I Care, which transforms lives. Visit www.icare.co.za for more information.

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