Happiness in helping others

This queen butterfly has a story to tell

Queen Butterfly's Palesa Mofokeng wants to inspire South African women. Photo: Sonwabile Antonie

Palesa Mofokeng is living proof that hard work and persistence pay off and she wants other women to follow her example.

Palesa is the founder of the Queen Butterfly Foundation, a centre that cares for special needs children in Roodekrans.

Life may be starting to look rosy for Palesa, but it wasn’t always so. She arrived in Johannesburg in the early 2000s with a matric certificate and big dreams of becoming a chartered accountant. She lived with her mother and soon realised she could not afford university tuition. With nothing but time on her hands, Palesa would often go with her mother to work.

“I was such a QwaQwa girl. Straight after high school I came to Joburg. I didn’t know anything but I was so excited. My mother was working for a family with a disabled child, so I decided to help look after him, from going to school with him, to visiting the therapist and wanting to know how I could help him. I would ask a lot of questions and then go home and try some of the things I saw the doctors doing just to help,” she said.

Her curiosity may have been the catalyst her life needed as the physiotherapist saw her enthusiasm and referred her to Julie Botha, who was about to launch Pathways.

At the age of 19, Palesa started working as an assistant to the principal of Pathways, and eventually earned the opportunity to facilitate her own class. She became adept at training new assistants and facilitators in the various therapies needed for each child in their care. She spent 11 years undergoing various training courses, learning from the principal, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, all of whom helped set up the therapeutic programmes for each child. She didn’t just grow her skill in working with children with disabilities – her love for them grew too.

Queen Butterfly’s Palesa Mofokeng wants to inspire South African women. Photo: Sonwabile Antonie

An experience Palesa had in Soshanguve left her scarred, but also hardened her desire to make a difference in the lives of special needs children. “It was five years ago, and I wanted to start a school in Soshanguve. That’s because I saw a child chained up even worse than an animal, and being fed like one, just because the child was mentally disabled and the family could not handle the situation. I tried to get the relevant authorities involved but no help came. I was so traumatised, even though this is a common practice in some black communities, because of the stigma attached to disabled people,” she said.

However, it was only last year that she decided to take a leap of faith, and after being mentored by Julie, she put in many hours creating the framework in which her own centre would materialise.

“It wasn’t easy. We started last year and it was the biggest step of my life. I was literally shaking and afraid. While at Pathways I didn’t have to worry about income but things changed when I started the foundation. Now everything was on my shoulders and I didn’t know where I should start. I didn’t even have a venue for the foundation, but in my heart I knew things were going to work out,” she said.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Palesa – she had to deal with a lot of negativity from certain sections of the community. “The negativity I received was shocking, especially the jealousy and racial issues from both sides. The jealousy came from some former colleagues because I was progressing. That’s why I feel so strongly about women supporting each other. The racial issue came from a government department that wanted Queen Butterfly to move to Soweto, because we are surrounded by white people where we currently are. I don’t live in Soweto; I live in Roodepoort and that is where I want to add value. There’s a myriad of children we take care of and it’s not about race at all. Forget about race and focus on the children,” she said.

However, with her mentor, family and the children she takes care of as support, she was able to move forward. “My support structure is the source of my happiness – the committee members of the foundation, the community that supports me and the donors who are more than happy to assist me. I get my smile from the people who see what I’m doing and want to support, and from my family who try to assist me wherever possible,” said Palesa.

August is Women’s Month and Palesa is urging South African women to be more supportive of each other. Women all over society face similar problems and she believes they can benefit by sharing their experiences. “Having Julie as my support has been amazing. This foundation is what I love and am passionate about, so having a woman I respect endorse me was great. Women need to work together, especially if we want to add value in the community. We need to transfer skills and knowledge to empower each other. It’s not about money – it’s about sitting down, sharing ideas and experiences and finding a solution, and other women will learn from that,” she said.

Palesa also had some advice for the youth. She stressed the need to add value to be successful in life and not to expect opportunities to fall from the sky. “If the youth would just start thinking out of the box instead of following one way of thinking, things would be amazing. Volunteering is one way they can go about it. No-one is just going to hand you a job, you have to get up and try by any means to learn a skill. The youth need to add value; they need to show how they can help – that way people will want to hire them. I wasn’t qualified to do anything but I knew I had to go out there and learn,” she said. “The youth need to follow my example”.

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