Dr Maureen Barnard, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Early Childhood Education, invited Joshua to emphasise to the Education students that there is hope for all children and that educators should never give up on a child. “Many children grow up under terrible circumstances and educators should not only focus on academics, but also take note of a child’s domestic circumstances in order to make a difference in that child’s life,” she said.

Joshua was captured in his village in the DRC in 2001 at the age of nine and trained as a soldier. He was involved in the fights between the Hutus and Tutsis in the DRC. There he and his friends were tortured and injected with muti, which was supposed to make them immortal. But Joshua saw how his friends died the one after the other, and realised that he had to get away.

One day, when he and three other friends was sent to fetch water at the river, they escaped and went back to their village. However, when the people of the village saw him, they threatened to kill him and his mother. To save his mother’s life, he crossed the border to Tanzania, where he ended up in a refugee camp. But conditions in the refugee camp was bad and he had to steal to eat. He went from one camp to the other, until he reached South Africa. He lived on the street for almost a year, until his path crossed the ECHO Outreach Project.

ECHO, a private welfare organisation, managed to secure sponsors for Joshua’s psychological counselling and school fees. Joshua, who is French speaking, didn’t have any primary school education, as he was a child soldier. He is now in matric and 18 years old. Last week, he was chosen on the student council of his school.

Joshua’s dream is to become a political leader and to do away with corruption in Africa, as he has first hand experience of what it does to a person. He sees war as a form of corruption.

The biggest lesson of Joshua’s story is that he made it to the top, despite his circumstances, says Dr Barnard. “Therefore no privileged university student has an excuse to not make a success of your life and career!”