Thandi is 15 years old. Born 20 February 1998 to Jennifer. Thandi's father was incarcerated until her 11th year. During this time, Jennifer was the sole provider. Jennifer took care of Thandi with the help of Thandi's great grandmother who died in 2007. Since then Jennifer has had nobody to rely on to help raise Thandi and to look after Thandi after school. They live in low socio-economic housing, surrounded by gangsters, drug abusers, and such. Thandi has thus far evaded these bad influencers by staying locked inside their home after school. Jennifer was unemployed for a while and to support herself and Thandi, she sued Thandi's father for maintenance. Beyond that, there is no communication between Thandi and her father.
Regardless of her environment, Thandi was able to consistently perform well academically. She impressed her teachers so much so, that when we approached the principal for a possible candidate, Thandi was the first name that they mentioned. Although a working mother, Jennifer found time to be active in Thandi's schooling by sitting on the School Governing Board. Thandi is an altar server at Holy Trinity Catholic Church and is a quiet, respectable, hardworking girl. Thandi shows great potential and CDC hopes to foster this potential.
CDC has now successfully placed Thandi in an ex-Model C school called JG Meiring (http://www.jgmeiring.co.za/).