User talk:Tendai Sean Joe

Submitted on Oprah.com Bioqraphv-Tendai Sean Joe (former street-child now international children’s activist)Share Monday, November 9, 2009 at 1:24pm | Edit Note | Delete Some call him a survivor; some call him the hope in the streets Tendai Joe, a former street child who came to South Africa in 2005 through the Kruger National Park and landed in a Squatter Camp, where he was greeted with attacks on foreigners in Pretoria West, but with no option, he lived through the trauma even becoming a role model among South African youths where he has been doing life coaching in different high schools.

Born in 1982 to Mozambican father and a Zimbabwean mother, Tendai is the fifth in a family of 10.Growing up in a farm setting, the family life took a nose dive when his father was transferred to an Urban area, Chegutu just before the 1992 drought. With a mother who was an informal trader and now faced with no supplementary income as the farm market was gone, coupled inexperience of the new cost of living challenges, urban life was apparently a burden to the family. On weekends and school holidays, Tendai and brothers would sell wire toys or pick cotton at a nearby farm, before things became worse and it was a norm not to have food on the table and with none to turn to, scavenging became the norm, shameful as it was, the society was not even that accommodating and with talk of sending Tendai and his brother Tawanda to a juvenile institute, the two landed in the streets.

Life was never that easy in the streets, as everyone saw a criminal element in every street child. It was a struggle, with young Tendai was fast becoming a criminal, mentored by older friends in the streets. The dream was to go back home and live a normal life, going back to Primary School but reintegration was a far fetched dream for young Tendai and brother. However two incidents drove Tendai back home, that was after almost 5 years in the streets of Chegutu, Zimbabwe. Tendai was bullied at school and lost tooth in the process and with no access to a psychologist the anger in young Tendai was bottled. In 1995 the family relocated to a rural area near Mozambique, where young Tendai and brothers once again got Malaria but were lucky to get the vaccine. Tendai was informally adopted by a teaching couple in 1998 .On the 25th February 2000, Tendai once again became a victim of Cyclone Eline when the bus he was traveling with from school and visiting his real family plunged into a flooding river. Tendai completed and passed his High School Ordinary level in 2001 but failed to get a scholarship, which left young Tendai stressed before he drowned into depression. Tendai had no one to share all the hardships with at the time when a counselor or psychologist was desperately needed and the only way out for him was suicide, but he managed to look beyond the pains.

Considering that he had managed so well straight after the streets. Tendai was to later migrate into South Africa illegally through Kruger Nation al Park in 2005, in pursuit of an evasive dream, Tendai landed in an informal settlement and survived by doing odd jobs and last year he was among the targets of the ugly xenophobic attacks.

However, today Tendai is a streets activist, legal in South Africa, who has had a chance to work with some high profile individuals during his tenure as a volunteer at a Cape Town based Youths Organization where he mentored former street children, drug addicts and ex juvenile inmates. Tendai also worked mostly on social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter where he has been very active on children’s issues.

He is currently planning the Trail of Hope documented motorbike journey across 16 countries with a goal of bringing awareness to the plight of young children across the continent. With adequate sponsorship and support, he hopes to begin the journey before the 2010 FIFA soccer World Cup. Tendai is also in the process of registering a non-profit organization – Trail of Hope Foundation. For more information, please click on http://trailofhope.blogspot.com/ or the organization Facebook page (1,571 members) http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=93611397570&ref=search&sid=683363333.2410510784..1

Quote on Twitter by Tendai Sean Joe - @TendaiJoe “Xenophobia, streetlife, sexual abuse, illegal immigration, malaria, Cyclone Eline, bullying and poverty. I have lived through all of it”