Lowveld - Dec 2019

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Katy and Benjamin, Rafi, (back) Jasmine, Anastasia and Yolande Muller 36 Get It Lowveld December 2019
o B rn heart in the Katy Muller was only 12 years old when, after viewing a documentary about orphans in Africa, promptly announced to her mother that one day she was going to go to Africa, adopt those children and care for them. She couldn’t have foreseen that this declaration would indeed materialise, leading her to leave her home in the UK and settle with four adopted children outside White River. Text: LIndI BOTHA There is no denying that Katy’s greatest joy is derived from seeing kids happy. With two biological children, Jasmine (11) and Benjamin (one year and eight months) and four adopted ones, Yolande (20), and siblings Anastasia (23), Rafi (26) and Silvestre (29), Katy could have adopted schools more had she been given the chance. “As a child I watched the TV programme The Waltons and they had a big family. I always knew that was what I wanted and dreamt of having at least 10 kids of my own when I was grown up,” she laughs. The plight of children has been near to Katy’s heart from a young age, as she spent her school holidays helping out at a playgroup her mother ran for handicapped kids. Answering a call to service, Katy studied to be a nurse, specialising in special needs children. “While I was studying I saw the news about the Romanian war and all the children who had ended up in orphanages - mostly handicapped. The government was supposed to look after them, but they didn’t and the children were in a terrible state. People were flocking there to help and I went as well. “The orphanage I worked in in Romania was horrific. The plight of the lost and forgotten children really moved me and that’s when I realised that adoption was the way to go. That country made me realise how fortunate I had been growing up and how much need there was out there to give back and give children a good home who didn’t have one. It really cemented the idea that adoption can help those in need.” From Romania Katy moved on to Brazil and worked with street kids to try and rehabilitate them. While she was there, she read about the floods in Mozambique and the dire state in which the children in the orphanages were. “I sobbed my eyes out and just knew I had to go and help. So I ended up at an orphanage with around 500 children, with no baby house so all the children were just wandering around. I was only supposed to be there for six weeks to help out, but as it turned out, I met my children and ended up staying 17 years,” Katy states with a smile. She relates how one little girl stole her heart. “Anastasia was three years old and she had the most beautiful big eyes. Visitors to the orphanage would come and go, pick her up for a while and then put her down and she would be left wandering around December 2019 Get It Lowveld 37
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