Julie Marinho

Hello everyone

Oct 2018 to Jan 2023

My name is Julie. I am a French girl that left home at 18 to go volunteer on the other side of the world with one wish: to help children. The plan was to only volunteer for 6 months at iKhaya and to go back home and study. But... this place kind of made a lot of changes in my life, and in my heart.

Struggling with English when I arrived, I firstly focused on communicating with the others. The children and the staff were amazing at teaching- so comprehensive and never judging. And the more I got to understand them, the more I got to learn about the different cultures, religions and ways of living.

And this is where things started to change... I started to learn from this place. A place filled with unconditional love towards anybody that stops by, doesn't matter where you from, where you going, for how long you gonna stay, they will love you with all they have. I not only learned to love, I learned to receive, serve and to give. Normally we associate working with money, but iKhaya teaches you that working is all about the pleasure to do it rather than the pleasure to get something in return. And that is for me, where meaningful life begins.

After this mind-blowing experience, I decided to extend my stay in South Africa to study full time for 3 years. Having some time in my holidays every year, I choose to come back to iKhaya to volunteer, again and again. That is what I wanted to do in my free time. Playing with the kids, watching them learning, and growing. Having late nights with the house mums talking about Zulu culture and helping them cleaning the house. Spending hours in Loressa’s office speaking about all and nothing at the same time, always with good laughs. Being surrounded by people trying daily to do their best to spread kindness, respect and love.

During the past 4 years in South Africa, iKhaya was my home. I will never be grateful enough for what this place has brought into my life.

Thank you ❤

Julie Marinho
Oct 2018 to Jan 2023