Catherine McAuley’s belief that education could raise young people out of poverty is borne out by the following stories. At a time when the standard of education in South Africa is at a very low ebb it is good to know that the children who attend our Mercy schools benefit from our efforts to strive for the best. Many of these children come from very poor backgrounds. What follows is a sample of their stories.

Tsogo High School

Buti is the oldest of three children who grew up in a two-roomed shack in Ramagodi, a slum area, North West of Pretoria. Both parents are unemployed and survive on what they can earn from doing odd jobs. Buti attended Tsogo High School, and in spite of having to walk five kilometres to school every day he focused on his studies and in his final examinations obtained seven distinctions. Having attracted the attention of a sponsor Buti is now a successful actuarial science student at Pretoria University.

Emelda, another past pupil of Tsogo, comes from a family of four. The father is dead and the mother supports the family by selling fruit and vegetables at the railway station. Emelda obtained six distinctions in her final examinations and has just completed her first year at the University of Johannesburg with four distinctions.

Sister Francis Sheehy sent us two stories from St. Matthew’s, Soweto. Just a few days after the opening of school in 2007, a little girl came to me and asked for money for lunch. I gave her R10 and, after lunch, I talked to her about her home circumstances. She told me she had no grandparents, and seemed quite surprised when I asked about her parents: both had died several years earlier and she was living with two older brothers and a sister. Their only income was the child support grant which her sister was receiving for her baby. I invited one of her brothers to come and see me. The brother proved to be a friend of Placidus, a past pupil of St. Matthew’s who had just matriculated and obtained a bursary to study engineering at the University of Cape Town. Placidus’s granny had assured him that if he could get his little sister into St. Matthew’s the Sisters would look after her. The siblings did ‘piece’ jobs to ensure their youngest would be able to stay at St. Matthew’s. The little girl is now a confident young lady with a University Entrance certificate with six distinctions waiting for a sponsor to help her to further her studies at the University of Cape Town.

St. Matthew’s, Soweto

Rosalia came to St. Matthew’s from Camp 3, an informal settlement near Chiawelo, Soweto, where hundreds of people live in tin shacks without running water, proper sewerage or electricity.  Despite the difficulties of growing up in such primitive conditions Rosalia matriculated at St. Matthew’s in 1995. In her final year at school she applied for a job at First National Bank. She was called for an interview: Rosalie’s marks were excellent but she had no clothes but her school uniform. The Sisters and the school secretary fitted her out for the interview which was successful. She began work at the bank. Two years later she phoned to tell us that she and her mother were moving into a house in Lenasia: the first house her mother had ever lived in.

Iona School, Pretoria

Some eight years ago a young pupil at Iona lost both her parents when she was in Grade four: she was nine years old. Because her parents had died of AIDS she was rejected by all her family except her aged grandfather. She continued at Iona and last year passed her final examinations with five distinctions. There are many such stories to be told and it is gratifying to see so many of our students making a success of their lives despite the many horrific problems many of them have to deal with. “In the same way that we waged war against apartheid education, government and communities should together combat those factors which militate against effective learning and teaching.” – Nelson Mandela

Immaculata Devine rsm
South African Province