Fikile has worked as a nanny and cleaner for 3 years. Fikile is an unfortunate product of a broken system in South Africa. Denied an education and as a result of circumstances forced to grow up early and missing any opportunity to pursue her dreams.

She lives in a small 2 bedroom house and has seven children to feed. Every day Fikile walks and catches taxis to get to my house, a journey that takes her two hours each way and is fraught with danger. And yet, every day she has a smile on her face.

In three years I have never so much as caught a glimpse of a frown. She has treated my children as if they were her own, and in return they too treat her like a second mother, every day my eldest asks where "Gogo" is.....I tell him she is sick, little does he know she may never return to our house.

Fikile suffered a major stroke last week. She is paralysed on the right side from head to toe. Fikile now understands that she had a stroke, even enduring all her pain and confusion she still asked how "her" boys are...referring to my children.

My fear is that Fikile may never get the rehabilitation she needs to make a recovery. At 55 years old she is too young to retire and without income runs a risk of this poor income cycle perpetuating through the generations of her family.

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