Street Kid Author:Judy Westwater, Wanda. Carter A moving and inspirational true story of a girl who, at the age of three was kept like a dog in the backyard before being sent to suffer at the brutal hands of nuns in a Manchester orphanage. Abducted by her father and taken to South Africa, Judy finds herself alone, fending for herself on the streets.After a childhood lived in terror, in 1994 J... more »udy was presented with an Unsung Heroes Award for her charity work with street kids in South Africa. Her moving story came to light after Judy was interviewed by John Peel on BBC's Home Truths. Street Kid is the inspirational and heart wrenching story of her early years.At age two, in postwar Manchester, Judy was kept by her psychotic father - a spiritualist preacher - in a backyard where she had to scavenge from bins. At four, she was sent to a catholic orphanage, where she was brutalised by nuns, before being put back in her father's care. For the next three years she was treated as a virtual slave.After being taken by her father to South Africa, Judy runs away to join the circus where she finds her first taste of freedom and friendship. But her dad soon tracks her down. And it is only a couple of months later that she finds herself alone. For 9 months, 12 year old Judy made her home in a shed behind a bottle store before collapsing in a shop doorway from near-starvation.Finally, aged 17, she manages to pay her way back to England to find her mother and sisters. But when she returns to Manchester, Judy finds her dreams cruelly shattered.Determined that her childhood experiences should in some way give meaning to her life, Judy has worked tirelessly to help children in need back in South Africa in the very place she had been treated to such abuse herself. She has opened 7 centres to date.« less