Just hope a little while longer.

Inepa is sitting in her office at the Ministry of Education. She is a child psychologist and has just talked to a young girl who has difficulties at school. When Lulita, fragile and timid, stepped into her enchanting consulting room with its colourful Disney characters, toys and walls, she could see how the girl's heart leapt with joy. But the child's inner state resembled a dilapidated building.

Looking at the girl's dirty clothes and rough knees, Inepa's thoughts linger back to her past, to a day many, many years ago ...

She sees three people on their way to Windhoek, on foot, exhausted and barely able to walk on. The mother is gasping for air, as they sit down on the pavement to rest. But not for long. An old man, passing by, chases them off like dogs. The two girls pick up their worthless bundles and continue to head towards their destination. Their mother follows them with heavy steps; she is a peasant farmer at !Gorabeb, working hard to save money for her two girls.

Inepa takes a glance at the gloomy faces of her mother and sister, her eyes filling with tears. Looking up at the open sky she remembers happier days, recalling the words her grandmother used to say when things became really tough. "Don't give up, my children, just hope a little while longer." With these words in mind Inepa walks more at ease. She does not mind the people staring her as though thinking, "Look at these raggedy, shaggy haired, smelly three people, greasy elbows and grey knees ... what a disgrace!" Staggering along the pavement, Inepa clutches her torn bag of scavenged books. Mother now walks close to them, comforting her little girls.

Eventually they arrive, pausing at the gate to rest. But the girls cannot wait longer and joyfully run towards the school office, their mother following more slowly. Tyara trips and falls over her torn dress. Embarrassed she stands up, but then she runs again. While mother is inside the school office, the girls rest on the stairs leading up to the classrooms. A long time passes.

Suddenly Inepa feels a sharp nudge on her shoulder; Tyara is calling for her attention. While still gazing at her sister from the window of her absent mind, her younger sister grabs her arm and pulls her to her feet. Slowly Inepa gears into consciousness, peering at her surroundings. She clutches her sister's shirt when she hears the good news: they have both been accepted at the school!

Overjoyed and cheering loudly they leave the school premises and walk to an abandoned scrap yard nearby. "I used to stay nearby this scrap yard as a little girl," their mother tells them. "During the day I would walk towards this school to watch the children inside the classrooms through the windows, as they were attending lessons. I myself, I never went to school. No money for that!" she says.

The two girls and their mother stay at the scrap yard for the night. The next morning the girls awake and to their great surprise there are clean clothes, soap and a bowl of water lying next them. "Where were you last night, Mommy?" Inepa cries. But there is just silence. Then her mother says, "Don't ask stupid questions! Get ready for school!"

Tyara walks towards the pre-school, Inepa to the primary school block. Nervous and shy, she sits down among grade one students. "But I'm supposed to be in grade five!" she wails. But without records for proof she has to accept the school's decision. Squeezed in a little plastic chair, her back bending down to a tiny desk, knees sticking into her chin, she struggles to write in a comfortable manner. Since she already knows so much, she gets triple homework and assignments.

Disappointed and deeply humiliated she watches her peers graduate to grade six at the end of the year. Sadly, she herself goes on to grade two. But she forces herself to study. The picture of landing on the streets, poor and homeless, begging, living on scrap yards drives her on.

Inepa persevered and made it to high school despite the mockery, the gossip, the domestic hardships, the exclusion by other students. Then even to university, endorsed with a bursary. And now: a child psychologist. Working to support her old mother, her sister, her poor relatives. "Little girl, just hope a little while longer," she whispers. "I will help you too."