Real lives

Ketiwe's story

We met Ketiwe when she was just two years old. She’d been abandoned at a children’s shelter in Hillbrow and was nothing but skin and bones. When she arrived at Impilo, she was suffering from kwashiorkor and all she did was sit and stare. She had difficulty eating and she didn’t have the strength to lift herself up and could not walk.

We can only imagine that her mother must have been very ill and very desperate when she walked away from her little girl.

Doctors from the Big Shoes Foundation examined her and referred her to a hospital, where she tested positive for HIV. When we started Impilo, it was not part of our mandate to look after HIV-positive babies, but the reality is that around one quarter of our babies are positive, and it is a struggle to find homes for them.

Ketiwe was put onto ARV treatment and treated for some weeks at the Johannesburg hospital. When she returned to us we barely recognised her. She had transformed into an amazing, bubbly, bouncy little girl, who as she got to know us burst into our nursery every morning like sunshine. The treatment she received from the Viral Clinic along with occupational and speech therapy continued to assist her development, and her lovely smile and constant joyous chatter brought joy into our hectic and difficult days – days in which we are desperately looking for families who can find a space in their homes and their hearts for children like Ketiwe.

It was with very mixed feelings that we said goodbye to Ketiwe when she was welcomed into the home of an extended family member we were able to trace. All our children are functioning little people who need to go to playgroups, climb jungle gyms, and do the things kids do. Above all, they need to be part of a family and to have a future.