05/06/2026
A Story of Hope: When a child chooses hope.
By Christine Shaw
When *Tshepiso was eight years old, she learned that home could disappear overnight.
After her mother passed away, she moved into her aunt’s small house. The adults around her tried their best, but life often felt uncertain. Some days, there was laughter around the table. Other days, there were arguments, silence, and fear. Tshepiso carried a question inside her that no child should have to ask: Where do I truly belong?
As she grew older, she moved in with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend. At first, things seemed better. But slowly, the house became filled with shouting and violence. At night, Tshepiso lay awake listening to doors slam and angry voices echo through the walls. The fear followed her to school, where she had once been known as one of the brightest learners in her grade.
She dreamed of becoming a doctor. Science had once excited her, and teachers believed she had a promising future. But trauma is heavy, especially for a child carrying it alone. Her marks dropped, her confidence disappeared, and she failed Grade 10.
For a long time, Tshepiso believed failure meant she was no longer intelligent. She did not yet understand that pain can silence even the strongest mind.
One Sunday evening changed everything.
After returning from a leadership camp where she had proudly represented her school, Tshepiso arrived home to chaos. Her sister’s boyfriend shouted at her to leave and told her she would not sleep there that night. Frightened and heartbroken, she stood outside behind the house with nowhere to go.
In desperation, she called her social worker from CMR Gauteng East at the time.
Although it was late on a Sunday, her social worker came immediately.
That moment stayed with Tshepiso forever. Not because someone solved all her problems instantly, but because, for the first time in years, an adult made her feel safe. Someone listened. Someone came for her. Someone decided she mattered.
Tshepiso returned to stay with her aunt, and slowly, hope began rebuilding itself inside her. She repeated Grade 10 and changed her subjects, believing her original dream was gone. Yet she refused to stop trying.
Step by step, she focused on school again.
In 2020, she completed matric and achieved first position at her school. The girl who once believed she had failed at life suddenly remembered who she was. Opportunities followed as she was accepted at university with the help of another social worker, from CMR Gauteng East at the time, establishing a growing belief that her story was not ending in pain.
At the University of Johannesburg, Tshepiso studied social work. She worked hard and excelled academically, but more importantly, she discovered purpose. She wanted to become the kind of person who had once rescued her - a social worker who showed up when she as a child felt abandoned.
Years later, Tshepiso graduated.
Today, she works at one of the offices of the same organisation, CMR Gauteng East, that once protected her as a vulnerable child. Every day, she sits across from children carrying fear, grief, and uncertainty, and she reminds them gently that pain is not the end of their story.
Because she knows something they do not yet understand: That sometimes the child who survives the storm becomes the person who helps others find shelter.
* Pseudonym
