Refugee girl fights for her future

INLSA

Shylet rests in her room at the shelter for women and girls in Musina just before she joins her housemates for the afternoon chores. Picture: Masi Losi

At 19 and in matric, Shylet’s dreams are to make it to tertiary education, reunite with her twin, Caroline, and to become a professional in the field of her choice.

Her eyes are set on the University of Venda or that of Johannesburg, and she says her grades at her Musina school have always been good. Her face clouds over as she hints at the possible problems in getting funding. Now a refugee living in a Musina shelter, Shylet, from Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, came to South Africa in February 2009 looking for her mother.

“I knew my mom was in Pretoria and wanted to find her to see if she could get us out of the situation of poverty we lived in,” she said.

Armed with a batch of forged documents ,she and others trudged through a river and crawled under fences, only to be captured by the police as they reached Musina. “I was declared under age and brought to this shelter where I stayed all year, frustrated that my well-laid plans were not getting anywhere,” she said.

This teenager is one of many unaccompanied and displaced children who make their way into the country in their thousands every year. The children often leave their families behind with the aim of finding a better life in South Africa.

The Children’s Bill says those under 18 deserve the protection of the state, which should ensure that they receive documentation that entitles them to education and health services.

Shylet, who left home in search of the mother who abandoned her and her twin sister in 2003, had in her hand the address for an Atteridgeville house, which bore the name of her grandmother.

She showed the address to the managers of the MGM women and girl’s shelter where she stayed and finally saw her grandmother, and other relatives, at the Atteridgeville home in January.

“It was emotional. They were excited and so was I. But because I never really had a relationship with them, my major concern was to find my mother. Although they had seen her after she left home no one knew where she was,” said Shylet.

Disappointed, she returned to the shelter, where she was enrolled in Grade 11. She swore she would make it, no matter what.

“But there is the issue of documentation. I have an asylum-seeker’s permit but that might not get me funding for university”.

If she found her mother – a South African – she would automatically be granted citizenship.

“But she is nowhere to be found so I remain a refugee.”

The Home Affairs system, Lawyers for Human Rights explained, did not grant nationality if the parent was not present.

Shylet said: “We were 11 when my mother left and we were shocked and confused. These feelings almost derailed me, but I quickly got over them and I have accepted that she never will be a part of my life.”

Her face lights up when she talks about Caroline, a domestic worker in Joburg. “We talk on the phone all the time but we stopped visiting each other because of the pain of separating when the time came.”

She recalls her first days at school. “I stood out from my schoolmates. I couldn’t understand sePedi or siVenda, but I learnt quickly and fit in now,” she said.

Life at the shelter also had its ups and downs. “It has become home. We are taken care of, fed and given chores to do,” she said.

Of her twin sister, Shylet said: “ If I get into the University of Johannesburg I will never allow us to be separated again.”

She added: “I don’t think I can have a relationship with my mom, but I would like to know where she is and find out why she abandoned us. We were very young and needed her when she left. Nothing she can do can make up for that.”

l This week marks World Refugee Week, which aims at conscientising South Africans about the plight of foreigners who flee their countries to seek refuge here. – Pretoria News