Grade 8, PUSH
Hi, I am Arielo Van de Ren and I live in Kliptown. I’m a 12-yearold girl and I live with my mom. My dad died when I was 10years’ old. My mother is Ariyana and she works as a street vendor. She’s very kind and hard working. People often tell me that I’m kind, sweet and hard-working like my mom. They also tell me about how clever I am. I’m tall and dark in complexion,with thick black hair and brown eyes. I love reading and writing.I am not a big fan of sports and hate kids disrespecting their elders.
One day, on the 21 st March, I watched news, and our president Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, was addressing the nation. He told us that there would be nation-wide lockdown starting on 24th March at midnight. When my mom got back I told her and she started panicking. She made sure to get enough money to provide for us until the end date of the lockdown. When she got my social grant, she bought enough food to last until 31 April.
In the middle of the month, Mr. Ramaphosa extended the days of the lock down. My mom started stressing as she could not work anymore, and I needed things like toiletries, etc. So one day, my mom left home early and went to work. She wanted to clean a lady’s house for only R700, but due to Covid-19, the lady refused. So my mom got home and she was hungry, so she looked for bread to eat, but I had eaten it all. My mom got really mad at me and started yelling, ‘Ariela, how could you finish all of the bread?’ I said, ‘Sorry mom, but I was hungry.’Mom said,’ Hungry, my foot! Come here!’
As I got closer to my mom, she took off her slippers and gave me a very good hiding. It was painful. I was in tears. I apologised to her but she kept on hitting me. Finally, she left me. As I cried, she looked at me and told me to be quiet. I tried not to cry but the pain made me weep. As she turned around, I took my mask, opened the door and ran out.
I wondered to myself, ‘Where will I go? Who will I tell?’ As I walked, I remembered that I have rights. So I immediately ran off to the police station. When I got there, a young police officer walked towards me as she spotted my tears and marks of a slipper all over my body. She asked me, ‘Hey, young girl. What is wrong?’ As I looked at her, I started crying again. She got closer and she consoled me, although she’s not allowed to. After all of that, she asked me again, ‘What’s wrong?’. So I told her and she immediately took me to the Child Protection Unit. I was later taken to a child protection centre, and my mom got locked up for 2 days.
When she got out, we appeared before a magistrate in the court of law. A spokesperson from the Oath of Commission helped my mom to get a job to stop her from stressing. They also registered me in a drop-in day care centre called PUSH, which is a centre for orphans and vulnerable children. My life is a bit better than it was. My mom loves her new job and now she does not have that much stress.