Ashley de Beer. (Photo: Cornelia Thirion/Maroela Media)
Ashley de Beer grew up in Pretoria North with an uninvolved father and a mother who had to scrape by to take care of her three children and get them through school. Today, Ashley dreams of becoming an underwater welding technician.
The dream is testimony to the difference that determination, a mother’s courage and a caring community can make in a hopeless situation.
Ashley’s story begins with Solidarity Helping Hand’s Bridge Fund project which empowered her by building bridges when she could not walk further on her own. In Ashley’s case, there was a compassionate donor who paid her kindergarten and school fees through the Bridge Fund.
Ashley and her two siblings could, like so many other disadvantaged gr. 1-learners, start their first day at school with a school bag from the Tassie project in hand.
Despite all the help Ashley and her family received, there were still challenges they had to overcome together.
“We walked to school before six o’clock, at six o’clock at the latest. By the time we arrived at school, the first bell had already rung. In winter it was dark when we walked to school,” says Ashley. “Depending on where we stayed, we walked between 5 and 7 km to school and the same distance back home in the afternoon. There was a time when we had to start walking at half past six to be at school on time.”
Satisfying everyone’s hunger was another challenge. Ashley’s mother, Bianca de Almeida’s salary only covers the rent of her house. Her youngest child is autistic and receives a social allowance which helps to keep the water and lights on.
The water bill often had to take priority, which meant there was no power and cooking could not be done. The family would then walk together to their nearest shop to buy bread and chips.
Ashley was determined to study to become a welding technician after school. Again money was an obstacle that threatened to collapse on her dream.
Bianca applied for an interest-free student loan and accommodation through Solidarity Helping Hand’s Study Trust, so that Ashley could study welding at Sol-Tech. But Ashley also had to have accommodation.
Ashley as an elementary school child. (Photo: Provided)
After a few phone calls, they determined that the same donor who once paid Ashley’s school fees, left her money after his death to fill gaps in her after-school needs. After Ashley’s necessities were purchased, the remaining money was used to pay for her boarding.
Now Ashley has won a scholarship and is still living in the residence where she is completing her 18-month training.
“What she has achieved is really only her own handiwork. Her own perseverance, her own… everything. She herself has worked for everything she has now and everything she will have in life,” says her mother proudly.
Chandré Joubert, project leader at Solidarity, says Ashley’s story is one of her favourites.
Ashley’s story began with the Tassie project, the HelpHetta project followed, and Ashley grew to where she is now in the adult world, says Chandré.
“I think Sol-Tech does her very well, because it is out of her frame of reference, outside her comfort zone. She can just be herself. It’s a new world that has opened up for her.”
Asking for help was not easy for Bianca.
(Photo: Provided)
“I felt humiliated. I had to look in other people’s eyes to make my child’s dream come true, but without other people it wouldn’t have been possible. I couldn’t make my dreams come true, so I will give everything to keep her dream safe.”
Ashley’s father is not involved in her life and she says that she saw welding as a way to build a relationship with him. After all, that’s also how her father earns his bread and butter. Now she does it fully for herself. For her dream.
“If there weren’t people who helped us, life would have been much more difficult. I wouldn’t be sitting where I am now. Without help, I might not have even finished high school,” says Ashley.
“When I got my school bag in grade 1, I never thought that one day I would find myself in a dorm room at Sol-Tech. I thought that I would simply finish school and look for a job that could help pay the house rent. It’s very nice for me to now be able to do what I love.
“I learned to help others. Even if you don’t have much, you help where you can.”
- Please visit the Brugfonds’ website to get involved and empower children.