The word is frightening, bearing all the stigma of an anxiety-provoking society. Township. A neighbourhood reserved for those who have neither the colour of money nor that of the dominant. It is there, in Soweto, in this suburb of Jo'burg where apartheid took its full toll a few decades ago, that the black man will never go hand in hand with the white. It is also here, in Alexandra, that wealth has taken hold just across the street. Everywhere, the corrugated iron shelters as best it can the thousands of families who have been picked up on their precariousness and subjected to the violence of despair.

Diving into the depths of the townships is part of a desire to bear witness to all this destitution. To show women and children who breathe this stale air of inexorable misery every day but keep the faith. And make us want to pray for them and for better days.