A day in the life and home of a child in an informal settlement

Hi my name is Lily. I live in a informal settlement called Du Noon. Life is very hard here.  I wish my family had indoor plumbing so then I don’t have to get up at four in the morning to go get water and stand in long lines. Then I have to come back wash up get dressed and get ready for school and that’s what is really hard.

I wish my parents had a car so I don’t have to walk to school .The route is so long I sometimes struggle to remember it. The route is dangerous sometimes there is a river we need to cross or a unstable bridge. And when is rains you must pray the sun comes out later so you can get dry because there’s no heaters or fans at school so you might just stay wet the whole day until you get home.

I wish I had proper food to eat so I can be healthy. If you get sick in our township you have to get up and three in the morning so you can get to the doctor early. You have to wait in long lines just like waiting for water but also sometimes there is only one doctor on the job so you have to wait a very long time. Most parent get a disease called HIV and the disease can kill. Mostly parents can get it and if they have kids and the parents die they live with the parents friends.

Having no shoes is a problem that I really want to solve. My parents don’t have the money to buy shoes so I have to walk around with no shoes. In our township there is dirt every like plastic, glass, and even rotten food on the floor which is so gross. Sometimes us kids step on that glass and get cut and then germs get into those cut and then we get sick.

Today school was fun I passed my maths test and got 92%. Today at break I was bored so I played soccer with the boys and I played goalkeeper but I refused to be bossed around by the boys and left the goalkeeper position and just went to go get the ball. That was a lot of fun. After school I went to my friends house and went to go study because they have electricity so it is easier to go study there.

So would you try living like me for a week or would you stay as you are right now because yes my life is very hard I know. But I give up on hoping the government will build us homes but I don’t want to gets involved into that’s mess.