My name Emmanuel, I am 19yrs of age and I started Scout in Bodwe in 2014 but I never joined, I thought it was stupid. In 2015 I ran away from home and basically school and went to the streets. I came back in to Bodwe as a Gangster. As a Gangster I was attacking people, robbing them, and threatening them with knives and a gun. I did this for two years.
My home was not good, I did not have a father and he ran away when I was a kid. Even now I don’t know him. My mother was in Bodwe but since 2017 she has been working in JHB. I started being a gangster when I was 14yrs with the neighbourhood kids. I was drinking, I was in my own world, I no longer felt any pain in my heart. I thought I was the boss; I became a bully and started taking things by force. My mother tried her best but I wouldn’t listen. So I left.
I spent 2yrs on the streets. I was not scared because I had a reputation as a Gangster, people were scared of me.
One day I met this other gangster who stabbed me with a knife and I realised I know longer wanted to be a gangster, that I needed to go home, go back to school and to get a job otherwise if I stayed on the streets I would end up dead.
I came back to scouts in 2017 and I feel like my life is now good. I am back in a good life. I am playing games with children, I am a leader, I no longer bully anybody. I am back in school at Grade 10 and I am passing well in school. When I am here at the KTD196 program my mind is doing well, I am teaching, I feel useful and do good things. The community now know I am not to be feared but that I am a Christian and a Scout and that is important to me.
I want to be a lawyer just like Casius. Casius is my friend and he helped me find my right mind, after being on the streets he walked a road with me and together through scouts life is now good.
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