Orphaned for most of her life, but still cheerful Portia Biko is grateful to the Department for her welfare.
The 31-year-old Biko says according to her knowledge, while she was few months old, she was found abandoned at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital  in Soweto and taken to Father S’mangaliso Mkhatshwa, previously known as Jabulani Welfare Complex in Soshanguve, Tshwane, where she grew up.

After completing her Matric in 2010, she was moved to Itireleng Residential Facility for the Disabled in Ga-Rankuwa since she is suffering from a spin cord disorder from birth.

Biko says, “I will always remain indebted to the Gauteng Department of Social Development for taking me in when I needed help and shelter as a toddler. The Department gave me guardianship over the years and today I’m an independent young woman who is self-sustainable”.

Currently Biko is employed as a Switch Board Operator at George Mukhari Hospital, just opposite Itireleng Centre since 2020 and wishes to encourage other beneficiaries who are due to vacate departmental institutions because of age restriction to, “Stay focused and seek opportunities offered by the Department and beyond”.

To the Department, she said, “Maybe in the future the Department should consider acquiring RDP houses and employment for those who are no longer protected by the Child Act and have outgrown their stay in government institutions because that could be better than being homeless. “If it was not for the Department, I don’t know what could have happened to me” she said.