IMPROVING the lives of children, especially those in the throes of poverty, is what Daniel Smither has been wired to do and he has travelled from Detroit to Durban to make his life’s calling a reality.
He is this week’s unsung hero.
Smither, who turns 50 on Wednesday, relocated to South Africa in 2008 together with his wife Rachel, their four children and established Key of Hope, a non-profit organisation that also has operations in the US.
It is an entity with a Christian ethos that works on mentoring children and building lifelong relationships.
A spin-off from their multifaceted endeavours was Key of Hope’s “senior choir” of 25 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18, who performed at the Freedom Day Concert hosted by Kearsney College, Botha’s Hill last Thursday.
Rachel, who studied music at the Oakland University, California, where choral direction was one of her majors, has been instrumental in shaping the singing voices of the children they’ve worked with over the years.
However, Asiphe Xhate, who is one of Rachel’s proteges and has been part of Key of Hope’s “Kids Club” programme as a youngster, directed the choir at the Kearsney gig.
“They love to perform,” said Smither, who has a bachelor's qualification in theology and is an ordained minister.
He said Thursday’s performance was one of the bigger local opportunities.
“But each time we toured the US, the choir was received like celebrities.”
In spite of working weekly with approximately 2 000 children in areas spanning Kenville to KwaMashu, and running a wide range of programmes, Smither said: “All our programmes; music, sport and even education, in spite of how important it is, are just another reason for us to spend time with children and build relationships.”
From their Hippo Road base in the Newlands East, Key of Hope reaches out to various poverty stricken communities, which they have divided into 17 sectors.
Every Saturday, primary school children from the 17 sectors are ferried to Hippo Road by taxi for Kids Club programmes, comprising sessions of fun activities, singing and mentorship, conducted in English and isiZulu.
Many of their 45 full-time staff members are former Kids Club members.
“The key to making all our programmes a success is the relationship we have with the children. Our staff manages the 17 sectors, and they visit between 150 and 200 children in their respective sectors weekly.”
Smither said staff do home visits to check on the children’s school performance and conduct and whether they had food.
The work of the organisation took flight in 2008 when he visited the “Boxwood” shack settlement near their headquarters.
He noticed a girl of about nine fetching water from a communal tap to wash carpets and earn an income for her family. She was not attending school because she had five siblings and her mother couldn’t afford her school fees.
He paid her fees, and those of some of her siblings.
That’s how their home visitation programme began. One of the girl’s siblings presently heads the organisation’s school fees funding initiative.
They run a youth programme on Friday nights and cater for “M&Ms” (young adults between matric and marriage).
Their Hope Academy is managed by two full-time teachers who tend to children who are unable to receive formal schooling because they don’t have the requisite birth certificates .
Many youngsters have been assisted with bursaries from NSFAS, overseas donors and the NPO.
“The majority of our funding is from overseas donors. We have sent kids overseas to do short term internships and gain experience.
“One young man is currently pursuing his commercial pilot’s licence in the US.
“We calculated that we’ve put in about R4m into local economies through the taxi associations and taxi drivers over the last 15 years.”
From the time Smither was a child, he wanted to be a paediatric doctor.
“I am the oldest of 14 children.”
Eight of his siblings were adopted African-American children who were removed from dire circumstances.
His parents’, Jim and Michelle, caring nature had their local social services department bringing abandoned children to them.
That’s how his desire to become a paediatrician was stirred.
During his third year at college he decided that “helping children was the way I was wired, and not medicine”.
Smither joined a Christian organisation that worked with Detroit’s city children full-time. After 10 years he decided to take child mentoring and discipleship to the next level.
Divine intervention led him to Durban to focus on the plight of children in the aftermath of the Aids epidemic.
“We just knew that was the place to help kids.”
SUNDAY TRIBUNE