Soteria
- Apr 3, 2017
- 8 min read
Updated: Jun 11, 2025
Soteria: To rescue. Found throughout Greek philosophy, derive from soter , which means savior. A guided development, helps to reach the desired end of psychological salvation, integration, and happiness.
A week ago, we left our beautiful home, Cape Town, and after a week of travel, we made it safely to Pietermaritzburg. Sitting in a bus for 22+ hours gives a girl too much time to think. Almost a little too much.
One of the things that was particularly on my mind was my Service Site- Soteria
I personally volunteered to fulfill my requirement at Soteria, which was the care center for Ocean View. Before studying abroad and meeting the staff of Soteria, I had no idea what we were actually going to be doing. The brief description we got was-
"We will be based primarily at a pre-school that is staffed almost exclusively by volunteers, and the students will provide whatever support is necessary to help make the school a success. Previous students have been able to branch out into other activities once they have shown that they can give 100% to the school. These other activities have typically revolved around working with abused women and children."
Very vague. Very broad.
After eight short weeks of volunteering that seemed to fly by, I can confidently say that Soteria alone has completely impacted my life.
Rarely am I at a loss for words, but there were multiple days on multiple occasions when we heard stories and witnessed moments, both little and huge, that left me speechless and in some cases, numb.
The description was correct. Soteria ran the Ocean View Care that also taught Kindergarten.
The Care Center was a place for the community of Ocean View to come and find a place of refuge, a place where they could bring their problems and have confidence that someone will care even when the government, police force, and social workers fail to function.
The Kindergarten was specifically designed to be a place where the high-risk children and those who had nowhere else to go due to various circumstances were welcomed and loved. The classes included art, English, and Afrikaans, and "bible study" where we read a devotional, prayed with the children, and sang Father Abraham on repeat.
Though, our Tuesdays and Thursdays were more than just teaching our kids their language (which side note, getting placed in the Afrikaans class and teaching those kids how to count up to five in their language was by far one of the most unqualified things I have EVER done given I barely speak English good. But using clay and singing een, twee, drie, vier, vyf seemed to entertain and educate them enough!)
We were doing half schooling half detective/psychologist work.
There was never a time when any of us were sitting down with an empty lap. We would never have a time when we didn't have 3-6 (minimum) kids chasing us around playground. This gave us the opportunities to bond with the kids, get to know them, learn about their home lives... I never knew that 5-6-year-old kindergarteners in South Africa could teach me, in a very weird way, what it looks like to be so incredibly loving regardless of circumstance. And for someone who's love language is not necessarily physical touch (but working on it!)... this was a stretch for me. It was absolutely out of my comfort zone. And I'm kind of okay with that.
Ocean View is a very broken community. There something about being in the township that feels heavy. After being involved with the community for a few months, I now know why. There are very prevalent issues of gang violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence within Ocean View, and all of it is reflected and projected through my 5 and 6-year-old kindergartners. 80% of our kids are abused in some form. One of our "jobs" was to build a relationship with the children, and from there, ask them questions about home, their family, how much they eat, where the sore of their elbow came from, etc... to be able to get a better understanding of these kids to better their circumstances.
Another "job" we had was playing side-kick to our director, Johann (who is one of the most incredible human beings I have ever met). A day in the life of Johann- Social worker, lawyer, police officer, father, brother, (God-willing) foster parent, superhero, etc... He does a lot for the community and gets paid nothing for all his hard work.
I had the privilege of following him around one day as his partner in crime where we went to the Police Station where I got to see the little effect the SAPS has on the community because they are either 1.) scared of the people or 2.) paid off by the drug lords. We also went to a few primary schools and fought for a couple kids to be let back into school. Lastly, we went into a few homes of people in the community where I met a really, really cool chick who will forever hold a place in my heart.
This was a really hard day for me. I distinctly remember it, February 14. I spent my Valentines Day dealing with abuse cases and women's skewed view of what love is. On a day what my cohort was nothing but lovey-dovey towards one another... it was just a different perspective and was humbling and heartbreaking at the same time.
One of the most challenging things we were able to do was sit in on therapy sessions at the Care Center- people coming off of the streets desperately seeking help, hope, and justice and going to whatever lengths to find it... what became difficult was hearing the stories of some of the parents of the kindergartners who were at our school and being able to put the pieces together of their lives and in the process, hurting for them.
On the first day of our service site orientation, we were unable to actually go to our site because there was a shooting very close to the proximity of where we'd be. So basically, Soteria made a sucky first impression that left a lot of us feeling uneasy about where we'd be serving, but never unsafe.
On that same day, Johann said, "Be prepared to cry every single Tuesday and Thursday." For someone who isn't much of a cryer, in all honestly, I took it as a challenge.
"I dare you. Try me. Crack me, you can't!!"
Yeah no... I was wrong.
Soteria has completely obliterated my view of what it looks like to be hurting and wounded. All my life, even in Richmond, I feel like I've been in a bubble of stability and innocence. And now here I am, hearing the stories of the broken-hearted on a weekly basis. I've struggled to reflect on the lyrics "break my heart for what breaks yours" because, at times, I could barely handle taking 15 units, let alone questioning why these people I've gotten to know so well are suffering like this, why my kindergartners are hurting so badly, I've questioned if I can handle issues this caliber, I even questioned my major a few times...
Just a bit of what I experienced...
A little girl was taking an unusually long time washing her hands, I told her that it was time to go back to class. She told me she wasn't done cleaning the dirt off of her hands. I said, "Honey there's no more dirt on your hands." Which she then responded with, "Auntie, yes I do. I have to get the dirt off my hands so I can be pretty like you." I then had to somehow explain to my 5-year-old South African beauty that skin color doesn't make you "pretty"... it was me staring race in the face and having to deal with it.
One of the boys I build a fairly good relationship with got hurt on the playground one day and asked if he could sit with me on the steps. Sitting on my lap, holding his face, crying, he looked up at me and said: "will you sing to me?" I said, "of course, what do you want me to sing." "Well... I really like the Lion King!" So, Disney, it was... Anytime I'd stop singing for a few seconds, he pulls on my hair to continue. I noticed him falling asleep and asked him if he slept last night, which he responded with, "No, mommy and daddy were yelling too loud at each other."
"Do you feel safe with mommy?"
"Yes"
"And what about daddy?"
"No..." I sang the entire album to this kid and I look down, and he's sound asleep. The principal of the school came over and I asked: "what do I do?!" Which she calmly responded, "Let him rest, he's safe with you."
On my first day volunteering, a little boy essentially claimed me as his new "sister" because his older sister with the same name as me was recently stabbed.
Other conversations and consultations that I was a part of that impacted me, but I'm unable to share because of confidentiality and ethical reasons. But goodness... broke my heart into a million pieces in a slip second.
Working with Soteria made me understand David's writings in the Psalms a little bit more because I have experienced what I mean to cry out to God to rescue, to comfort in a time of desperation, to come through. There were days when I felt SO unqualified to dealing with some of the things I was faced with. There were days when I couldn't confidently tell myself, "They're going to be okay" because that wasn't their reality. There were days when all we could do was hold their hand and wipe their tears away.
There were days when I left and related to a quote I read in one of my textbooks that said, "could one reach a stage where they could no longer face the pain in their hearts and the tears from their eyes?"
Leaving Ocean View was not extremely difficult for me because I found peace in constantly remind myself that everything is going to be okay, that I would see my new friends someday whether that be in South Africa or in Heaven, and someway, somehow, God was going to come through.
I wish I could better out into words the impact my site has made on me. I'm still in the process myself in looking for what God is trying to teach me through all of this. It's just kind of a lot to focus on school, building relationships with people in my cohort, keeping up with people back home, "experiencing Africa" AND service sites.
BUT... I will always remember the sweet faces of our 40 kindergartners, the women with incredible strength, the 4 teenage boys that came on a weekly basis as a part of their parole, the little moments with other volunteers... I didn't expect this to "change my life" but it definitely has altered my view of what it looks to unconditionally love the outcasts and has influenced the trajectory of how I hope to use psychology as more than just a major.
The ten of us serving at Soteria had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Teaching kindergarten, going on missions with Johann, counseling, sorting clothes, making care packages, singing songs, reading books, whatever they needed from us... that what we were there to do.
Thank you for the nine other students who served with my- Emily, Katie, Lucy, Madison, Mary, Mckenna, Naomi, Taylor, and Abraham... thank you for being the best support system I could every ask for.
Johanna Means Family
I'm going to miss the serving the containers of the care center.
I wish I could share photos of my kids but we were asked not to post any with the children's faces in the.
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