We are looking for 1,000 people willing to give $20 / £20 / €20 (R350-R400) — or whatever you can afford — to help our family rebuild, protect our little boy, and find a way forward.
Three of the hardest words a person can say are: “I need help.”
My name is Lesley, and I never imagined I would have to write those words.
I am a mother asking strangers around the world to help us give our little boy, Wyatt, something every child should have:
A safe home.
A chance to develop.
A stable childhood.
And a future filled with possibilities instead of fear.
Wyatt is our miracle baby.
After years of hoping, waiting and heartache, we finally got to hold our son. Today, he is still our greatest joy.
But our family has reached a point where we can no longer solve everything on our own.
Our home has been repeatedly damaged by devastating floods. The property has serious underlying problems, including a failing roof, dangerous electrical issues and structural defects. Repairs have become financially impossible for us, and the house is now standing between our family and the fresh start we desperately need.
At the same time, Wyatt has now been officially diagnosed with Level 2 Autism Spectrum Disorder with severe language delay. A diagnosis we only managed to get with help from donations we received thus far. He needs ongoing speech therapy, occupational therapy, developmental intervention, specialist support and appropriate education — needs that we simply do not have the means to provide.
And time matters.
As his mother, one of the hardest things I live with is knowing that early intervention could make a profound difference to his development — while we are struggling simply to keep our family financially afloat.
I don't want Wyatt's childhood to be defined by the things we couldn't afford to provide.
I want him to have the opportunity to thrive.
💙 Our Family's Story
My husband and I bought our home in 2013.
We thought we were building our forever home — somewhere we could raise our family and care for our aging mothers.
We worked hard for it.
We invested our savings, our time and years of our lives into making it work.
But what we didn't know when we bought the property was that it had serious underlying defects.
A leaking roof.
Dangerous wiring.
Structural problems.
And a drainage situation that would eventually leave us battling repeated flooding.
Since 2022, the floods have repeatedly destroyed the work we have done to repair and improve the property.
Our insurance only helped with a small percentage of the first major claim, but then stopped covering the repeated damage.
Today, we are left with a house that is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain.
And we are afraid that if we cannot repair it, we may lose the home altogether.
Then, in April 2025, I lost my job.
I have continued applying and looking for work, but finding stable employment has proved extremely difficult, with the our over 40% unemployment rate, and B-BBEE policies in South Africa.
Meanwhile, we are also caring for my mother, who has dementia and lives on a tiny state pension.
We have tried to carry all of this ourselves.
But we have reached the point where we need help.
And asking for that help is one of the hardest things I have ever done.
👦 But This Campaign Is Really About Wyatt
Everything we are trying to do comes back to our son.
Wyatt is still so young.
He has his entire life ahead of him.
And we want to give him the strongest possible start.
We want him to have access to the professional assessments and early developmental support he needs.
We want him to attend preschool in a safe, nurturing environment.
We want him to grow up somewhere that isn't constantly threatened by flooding, financial instability and the possibility of losing our home.
And ultimately, we want to create a pathway for our family to leave South Africa and build a safer and more sustainable future elsewhere.
We aren't asking people to fund a life of luxury.
We are asking for the breathing room needed to rebuild our lives.
🌱 Our Goal: R400,000
We have created a practical plan for how the funds will be used.
🏠 1. Make our home sellable
Repair the most urgent flood, roof, driveway and safety problems so that we can sell the property and move into something smaller and more manageable.
👦 2. Give Wyatt a year of specialised preschool and therapies
Provide a safe, nurturing environment where Wyatt can learn, socialise and develop while and receive the desperately needed OT and speech therapies to help him build the foundations for a brighter future.
🎓 3. Help my husband turn experience into opportunity
My husband has almost 20 years of experience in supply chain-related work. Funding a Higher Certificate in Supply Chain Management would give him formal qualifications to complement that experience and improve his access to stable employment.
💼 4. Help me strengthen my own career
A Higher Certificate in Office Management would build on my existing experience and improve my prospects of securing reliable employment.
🍎 5. Keep our family going while we rebuild
Approximately nine months of basic living support would give us enough breathing room for food and essential household expenses while I continue searching for work and we complete our studies and plans.
✈️ 6. Open a pathway toward a safer future
We also need to investigate our family's potential immigration options, including obtaining the necessary civil documents to establish our Irish and UK ancestry and determine whether those routes could eventually provide our family with an opportunity to relocate as South Africa is becoming increasingly unsafe and work opportunities becoming harder for us to find.
Every part of this plan has one purpose: to move our family from survival to stability and independence. To a point where one day we will be in a position to help others, rather than being the ones who need help.
❤️ What $20 Can Mean
We deliberately chose a small target per person.
We're not looking for one millionaire to rescue us.
We're looking for 1,000 ordinary people who are willing to say:
"I can't fix everything — but I can help this family take one step forward."
If 1,000 people gave $20, that would give us the foundation we need to begin rebuilding.
And if you cannot give $20, please don't feel that you have to.
$5 helps.
$10 helps.
£5 helps.
€5 helps.
Sharing this campaign costs nothing — and could put it in front of the one person who is able to make a life-changing difference.
There is no donation too small when 1,000 people stand together.
🌍 Why Are We Asking People Around the World?
We know that people everywhere are struggling.
We also know that asking friends and neighbours to help with a campaign of this size isn't realistic when many families around us are facing financial pressure themselves.
That's why we are reaching beyond our immediate community. The exchange rate also means that even a modest donation of $20 / £20 / €20 goes significantly further in South Africa, allowing us to ask less of each person while still making a real difference. This way we can lighten the burden on our donors, and still give Wyatt the safety and future stability he needs. (Current Estimated Exchange Rates: $20 = R320 / £20 = R435 / €20 = R370)
Our hope is that this story reaches South Africans living abroad, people with connections to South Africa, parents who understand what it means to fight for their child, people who have experienced financial hardship, and simply compassionate strangers who believe that ordinary families deserve a chance to rebuild.
We don't expect anyone to solve our problems for us.
We are ready to do the work.
We just need enough help to get back onto solid ground.
🕊️ Help Us Give Wyatt a Chance
One day, Wyatt may look back at this chapter of his life and never know how frightening it was for his parents.
He won't remember the nights we lay awake worrying about the roof.
He won't understand what it felt like to watch floodwater destroy our home.
He won't know how many applications his mother sent while desperately trying to find work.
He won't know how many times we wondered how we were going to make everything work.
And that's exactly what we want.
We want these difficult years to become a chapter we overcame — not the story that defined his childhood.
We want to be able to tell him:
"When things became impossible, people we had never even met came together and helped us find a way forward."
That's what this campaign is about.
Not a handout.
A bridge to a new beginning.
🙏 Will You Be One of Our 1,000?
If you can donate, thank you.
If you can share, thank you.
If all you can do is read our story and keep Wyatt in your thoughts, thank you.
Every share increases the possibility that this reaches someone who can help.
We are 1 family.
We are asking for 1,000 people.
And we are hoping together you can help us give 1 little boy a safer future.
Please help us take the first step.
Donate if you can. Share if you can. Help us find our 1,000.
With love and gratitude,
Lesley, Wyatt & Family ❤️
Campaign: https://www.givesendgo.com/OurLastHope
