Save a Family Fundraiser

Dear all, I have come into contact with a little boy of 11 at the Magaliesport Total Energies fuel stop on the N4 highway towards Rustenburg.  His name is Michael – and on this day, as is usual for him on every day, he was hungry. Speaking softly and respectfully, he asked for bread and couldn’t eat the burger I bought him fast enough, even though the chips were taken from him by older children.   

The next day, I took whatever I could round up in my kitchen cupboards and added some rushed purchases from the fuel stop shop. After having crossed the N4 in the midst of fast, oncoming traffic, he was taken home by a customer together with these few things that I could put together for him. 

But Michael’s eyes, and face, and desire for magic, stayed with me and I knew that somehow we have formed a special bond that was instantaneous and miraculous. 

I met his family, his 29-year-old mother, Martha, who is years older before her time, and 4 siblings: Tebogo, Lucky, Winnie and Liefie. Sitting in the shade of a high-veld...