Stories

When we share our stories, understanding, empathy and trust grow. Our relationships improve and we get a stronger sense of community. At Heartlines, we’ve seen how story-sharing has impacted and connected thousands of people beyond anything we could have imagined. Here are some of those stories.

Do you have a story that everyone needs to hear? We want to hear it! Share your story here.

Video stories

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Motherhood brought me home

Motherhood brought with it a gift of love, but it also brought Morongoa necessary, tough lessons about life. When she became a mother, she began to understand her mother’s perspective.

Pregnant at 17: All I wanted was to be free

Falling pregnant at age seventeen seemed to be the end of Nontokozo’s world. Her dreams had to be put on hold, and a degree seemed like a distant possibility.

One can be free and still be a slave

Moss Ntlha reflects on life as an unfree person under the oppressive system of apartheid. He also offers encouragement for how to live fully as a free person in a democratic South Africa.

I lost my daughter to cancer

Dear O, I miss you dearly, it’s been a while but I will be fine. Days are getting better, and everyone is doing just fine. Mommy is imagining a 20-year old you, in varsity and living your fullest life.

Mitchells Plain exposed me to gangsterism

A potentially fatal eye operation and growing up in a community often notorious for drugs and gangsterism could not stop Lance from achieving his goals.

I took his shame and made it my identity

The sexual abuse Connie endured while her family lived in a squatter camp was the beginning of a tough road that would include anorexia, drugs, abuse, infidelity, prostitution and her daughter’s suicide. Against all odds, Connie triumphed.

I lost a loved one to domestic violence

Losing a loved one to domestic violence impacted Tebogo in a profound way. But then a trending hashtag #menaretrash, and a conversation with his wife, shifted his mindset even further.

I have been through all the cancer meds

Radiation, chemotherapy, a mastectomy - and medication for life. What more could one woman have to face? Nava shares her brave story of living with and battling cancer.

I was dead for 45 minutes

After a heart attack left her without a heartbeat for 45 minutes, Zhaunine’s journey to the other side of death and back gave her new purpose and hope for her life.

I thought white people were more capable

A young black comrade in the armed struggle and an older white man conscripted to the army during apartheid South Africa find an unexpected point of connection.

My neighbours thought I was a drug dealer

Growing up in Congo-Brazzaville, Cherry was encouraged to stand in solidarity with South Africans suffering under apartheid. Now living in South Africa Africa, he unfortunately is not seeing this solidarity reciprocated.

I was declared blind at 17

Leanne’s eyesight started deteriorating when she was 10, and by 17 she was declared clinically blind. Yet her disability has not stopped her from accomplishing remarkable feats.

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