Life on the streets as a teenage mum

Stella hums as she pedals on her sewing machine. “I’m a survivor thanks to King’s Kids… I hope you can reach out to others just as you have done with me!”

Stella lost her own mother when she was just six years old and suffered years of neglect and abuse at the hands of an alcohol-dependent father. She resorted to drug and substance abuse in order to cope with life. After her pregnancy, she moved in with her boyfriend, who constantly beat her.

Things took a turn for the better after she joined King’s Kids.

“Life was too mean and cruel before [King’s Kids] came into my life… I dropped out of school in 2022 and later became pregnant when i was 17… everything in life lost its meaning,” explains Stella.

Stella dreamed of becoming a tailor, so King’s Kids matched her with a church member who gave her 10 months of tailoring training. Since finishing training, they found her a sewing machine that Stella has on loan for a year while she saves some of her earnings to pay a subsidised cost for it. King’s Kids prioritises the young people’s ownership and agency in their own lives, rather than giving them things as handouts.

Since being able to earn her own living, Stella has left her boyfriend and now rents a small house for herself. “The father of my child is my tailoring job, because the actual father gave me a hellish life, » Stella half-jokes. Now able to provide for herself and her baby, Stella can now break the cycle of violence and give her baby a different life.