Category: Sue Gray

"It is easy to feel overwhelmed in these situations. The African proverb states that it takes a village to raise a child, this means that an entire community of people must provide for and interact positively with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. Is this dated or can we be part of the village we so often talk about?"

"I wondered why he wasn’t dressed in the hospital gown that all children in the surgical ward wear. He seemed healthy. What brought him here? And then the truth came spilling out of the mouth of a mother doing all she could to protect her son. I listened hard."

One final push and your promise will be born. These words ran through my head as I sat quietly in God’s presence. Alone on my bed, on a cold, misty morning in Ireland, I was definitely not pregnant. At least, not in the natural. I had arrived here ten weeks before, seeking rest and recuperation after being a temporary safe care parent to nine babies over the course of two years in Cape Town, my home.

The crisis of vulnerable children in South Africa and how one person’s life can make a difference Overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted, weary, apathetic. These are all words that could have described how I was doing in 2014. After spending eight years living abroad as a missionary, immersed in foreign cultures, serving the poorest of the poor and not looking after myself I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue or in layman's terms burnt out. Completely and utterly depleted, I returned to South Africa.