HELP is on its way.
This is what the officials and good samaritans, who visited a family of seven who live in a one-room mud home in KwaCaluza near Edendale, have promised.
Six children — the youngest in Grade R, live with their father, who is a gardener.
Their mother left back in 2009 and never returned, recalled a 10-year-old who will be doing Grade 4 next year.
“Mom left in 2009 when I was seven. She told us that she’ll come back, but she never did. I don’t even know where she is,” he told The Witness.
There’s a single bed on each side of the room, and a stove by the door, with a few buckets of water.
The tiny room is their bedroom, kitchen and eating area, all in one.
The roof is leaking, and the walls have cracked.
To get to their home, one walks a narrow steep footpath.
They buy water from their neighbours, paying R5 a month, because they do not have running water.
On the last day of school, on Friday last week, they walked the usual long way home in blistering heat, their faces beaming with joy and their books neatly tucked into old plastic shopping bags and empty cereal boxes.
School bags are a luxury they cannot afford, but they are doing well at school. All six of them have passed their respective grades.
Besides wanting to become rich or own a car one day, the little boy in Grade 1 said he wished to have a school bag with wheels next year.
Their older sister, who passed Grade 6 with flying colours, said her dream was to become a journalist.
After school, she has to cook for her siblings and father.
Her older twin brothers are 17 years old.
They praised their father for trying his best to provide for them.
“All we desire is to have a proper home,” the siblings told The Witness.
A local businessman, Muzi Mkhize, has promised to build this family a home before Christmas, while Edendale Hospital has provided them with clothing and blankets to keep warm.
