Pleasure

• Angela
• Atalia
• Bafundi
• Bongani
• Koketso
• Lebogang
• Nompumelelo
• Nthokozo
• Pleasure
• Sandile
• Sandra
• Sipho
• Thokozani
• Zanele

Mukhanyo Christian Academy

Pleasure

Five years old and an orphan.

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Pleasure is five years old. He is an orphan, whose parents died in 2008. He lives in a tin shack with his grandmother, while five other members of his family reside in an adjacent brick house. Pleasure has two older sisters: Precious, 20 years old, is the mother of two small children, Bray and Sab and cooks for the whole family. Busi is 25 and has one small child, Angel. No one in this extended family has a job. The grandmother receives a small grant which is the only source of income for this family of seven.

Pleasure’s family struggles greatly to meet their daily needs, but they pray for God’s provision and are grateful for his help. When we gave Pleasure his school clothes and his backpack, his grandmother sent the school two homemade grass mats to show her gratitude. While it may not seem like much, this gift was an act of incredible generosity. I believe that Pleasure’s grandmother makes the mats herself in an effort to bring a small amount of income into the home. She is sincerely grateful to MCA and the wonderful opportunity it is providing her grandson.

Pleasure is an extremely sweet-natured child. He tries hard to master new concepts and do his schoolwork well. His caregivers are all illiterate, so Pleasure received almost no academic instruction before he came to MCA. While the other students were able to count to 10 or even 20, Pleasure didn’t know any of his numbers. To help him catch up, we started tutoring him after school one day a week for an hour. Pleasure flourishes during this one-on-one time. Before the first session he could not count past two. After two sessions, he could count to ten and identify many of the numbers by sight. His improvement has been rapid and amazing. It is now obvious just how intelligent Pleasure is; he simply hadn’t had the opportunity to demonstrate it. Outside of the academic support Pleasure receives, we make sure he gets some much needed emotional care. A simple smile means so much to this child. Pleasure will do anything to please you. He seems a bit starved for love and affection, so we make sure to praise and hug him as often as possible. With our positive support system, Pleasure is developing into a beautiful, happy child.

Pleasure was featured in our May 2010 Newsletter. If you’re not already subscribed, click here to be added to our monthly updates.