Talented children come from the dusty roads of places like Gugulethu and Langa, says Esther Ramusi, widow of former ANC member of parliament, Collins Ramusi.
She should know. She has helped put 150 children from the dusty roads of Cape Town's poorest communities through university.
Seated in the foyer of Artscape, Ramusi recounts with immense pride that "her" children are now doctors, lawyers and civil engineers.
One of her newest "recruits", a "tiny girl whose voice comes from inside here", says Ramusi pointing to her midriff, hopes to be a leading opera singer.
She then opens the folder on her lap to reveal letters and e-mails from her proteges. "Read it aloud to me, girl," she says to me, her eyes iridescent. It's obvious that for Ramusi, these words of gratitude are all the reward she needs.
Ramusi has been in the dream business for almost a decade, and now she is helping Andrew Warth of the Cape Town City Ballet Company realise the dreams of more than 400 orphans.
Warth and Ramusi are holding a Christmas party on December 22 where children between the ages of four and 12 will be treated to an exclusive performance of the perennial Christmas favourite, the Nutcracker Suite at Artscape.
"Most of the kids have never seen a ballet," says Ramusi. "And those who have, have only seen it on television."
For many of the children, this will be their visit first to a theatre.
Warth says his regular telephone conversations and chats over tea with Ramusi about her children inspired him to organise the party. He says the Nutcracker Suite was the ideal ballet to encourage budding dancers to take to the stage.
"My nan first took me to see the Nutcracker in England and I knew then that I wanted to be a dancer," says Warth. The children will get to meet the dancers after the performance. Each child will also go home with a gift, which Warth hopes patrons and friends of the ballet will provide for the event.
Cape Town City Ballet will also be holding its annual Fairy Parade tomorrow. Children wanting to take part in the parade should bring a wrapped gift that will be donated to an orphan at the Christmas party.
Although originally from Chicago, Ramusi says she came to South Africa in the '80s "when it was not popular" to be here.
She says arriving in the then Northern Transvaal with her South African husband, as an African-American, "was a huge cultural shock".
But Ramusi says the first people to befriend her was a group of Afrikaans-speaking girls.
"They said to me that that they could tell that independence was coming and they wanted to know how African-American women had survived independence in America."
Ramusi says she agreed to share her experiences, if the girls would come to the townships and teach the women there how to bake.
She speaks fondly of her time in the "northern Transvaal".
"There was no crime there and when there is no crime, one can concentrate on dealing with the needs (of the community)."
The couple moved to the Western Cape after the 1994 elections when Collins was needed in parliament to help with the drafting of the constitution.
The constitution was adopted in May 1996, but two months later Collins died of a heart attack.
"Now that was a shock," says Ramusi.
She says she knew that life in the Northern Transvaal as a widow would be very different.
"It would have meant sacrifice and I would have feel less safe being there without a husband."
Ramusi decided to remain in Cape Town. As an urban planner for the Capex education trust, Ramusi found herself working in areas such as Gugulethu and Langa.
One if her first projects involved the construction of a science laboratory for Thandokhulo High in Mowbray.
As a woman urban planner in a male-dominated field, Ramusi says she was still somewhat of a novelty.
So she was invited by the head of the school to address the matrics. Her initial impulse was to refuse.
"I was about to go on holiday and I thought: 'why should I?' But then I thought of my husband who would have said: 'Who are you that cannot speak to these children?'"
When Ramusi spoke to the matrics, she asked them what they wanted to study after school.
Diamond Mziwabantu said he wanted to be a tour guide and Mayisela Monbongo said she hoped to be a technician or a nurse after completing school.
But Ramusi had bigger dreams for the youngsters. Instead, she encouraged Mziwabantu and Monbongo to study law and medicine.
"My boy is now an attorney and junior partner for a law firm in Johannesburg," she says proudly.
She then whips out photographs of Monbongo's graduation as a medical doctor from Stellenbosch University.
Since her chance encounter with the matrics of Thandokhulo High, more than 100 "bright kids with no money" have been given a chance to study further, thanks to Ramusi.
She gets friends in the US to "top up" funds for "her children", helping them to buy books and other items they might need while studying.
Next year, seven new children from the Eastern Cape and Free State will start their university careers.
Ramusi believes that education is paramount.
And she believes that the work she is doing in helping talented children get a tertiary education has the blessing of her late husband, who she says only learned to read in his twenties.
Ramusi credits the success of her children "to God" and says that she is "never broke when doing service work".
Her other projects include bead-making workshops with HIV positive women in Langa and feeding schemes in the area.
Ramusi says she hopes the orphans party at Artscape will become an annual event.
For this indefatigable humanitarian, the biggest challenge of organising the party has been in finding transport for all the children.
- Anyone wishing to donate a gift for the Christmas Party on December 22 can leave it at Artscape's box office or at the Cape Town City Ballet studios in Rondebosch during office hours. The gift should be marked whether it is suitable for a girl or a boy.