What I Discovered
Years later, while running a journalism programme for delinquent girls in a Cape Town detention centre, I saw that truth in their eyes too.
They were only 13 to 16 years old but had already lived through horrors: rape by family members, beatings that left them unconscious, parents addicted to drugs. Many had committed crimes like murder, arson, and robbery.

Week after week, as we wrote together, I realised we shared the same longing: we all wanted peace, but peace requires Inner Strength .
The kind of strength that would make us believe that we were worthy and valuable despite the lies our circumstances tell us.
Those girls weren’t just learning to write; they were learning to rewrite what was possible for their lives.
And so was I.