I'm Shirlene. I'm twenty-one years old. I live in Nieu Bethesda, where I grew up with my grandmother. My mother was working in Cape Town. When I was fifteen my mother got married, and after that she didn't come home for holidays anymore. I did school from Grade One to Grade Seven in Nieu Bethesda, and then I went to Spandau High School from Grade Eight to Grade Twelve. A few months before my Matric exams, I had trouble with one of the teachers. I left school without completing my Matric, and I felt bad about that, because I want to be what I want to be.

I went to Cape Town when I was seventeen to work in a shop, where I lived with my mother. It was not nice, because I don't like my stepfather. That was when I met my father for the first time. It was a tragedy because I believed that my grandfather was my father, and I didn't want to believe my father. He really wanted me to accept him as my father.

In the shop it was nice to meet different coloured people who came and talked to me. But after two months I fought with my stepfather, and my stepfather told me to leave. I lived with my uncle and aunt for a year, and then came home to Nieu Bethesda. In 2002 I got pregnant with a white man, a policeman, but I didn't know I was pregnant. I went to Jo'burg to work as a babysitter, and discovered I was pregnant when I was five and a half months. At seven months I returned to Nieu Bethesda where my son was born.

I like to be at the Centre because we learn a lot here. Julia makes us feel comfortable. She always has a smile on her face - she doesn't look bad. I think we will miss her when she is gone, because she teaches us a lot of things to do. She is also a very good teacher. I enjoy sewing.

This year I am going to do some more studying at the Centre, and hope to get some qualifications. I have learned to use the computer in the Centre library, and I am going to do my Matric exams.