Leah nets her dream job

She’s the girl everyone left behind.

But this year her story is starting fresh, with prospects she would never have dreamed possible.

Leah Brewster, 21, is the new secretary of Oceania Football Confederation.

She’s teetering on the edge of a whole new world, with overseas travel and learning foreign languages part and parcel of the deal.

Just months ago, Leah was homeless.

As a four-year-old, she lost her father to illness. Her mother was left to raise her, but was ill too.

Her second major loss was when she was 16.

Her boyfriend was "a lovely Tongan boy" with an extended family who accepted Leah into their fold. For the first time in years, Leah had a large happy family scenario.

But it wasn’t to last.

"One day my boyfriend went out for a walk, and a drunk-driver in a truck ramped the pavement and crashed into him," Leah says. He was killed outright.

His family returned to Tonga to rebuild their lives.

Leah was nursing her ailing mother.

"I nursed mum by myself. She had heart problems. I looked after her till the end," Leah says.

That was when Leah was "not quite 18 years old".

Leah had no parents, no boyfriend, no support system.

"I lived with some friends for a while, but in the end, I moved in to the night shelter. I helped out there, I cleaned the shelter."

She spent days doing the only thing she knew how to: Helping others.

"I worked in the city mission just helping out with the yoghurts."

Leah says she was warned to stay away from the other night shelter dwellers in case they "turned her into one of them".

"But I would just talk to the homeless. People look at them and feel sorry for them."

Last October Leah was found by Danielle Bergin of the Pacific Island Child Trust in Pt England. Danielle takes in homeless people and helps re-integrate them into society.

"Danielle is so kind and has helped me so much. When I am sad she is the person who cheers me up, and I help her as well," Leah says.

Danielle was moved by Leah’s story.

"She’s such a great girl. She’s kind and helpful and loyal and she wants so much to have the good life she deserves," Danielle says.

She took Leah in and started encouraging interests that could provide a job or direction for her.

"I love sports, all kind of sports," Leah says.

Then Leah and Danielle met Oceania Football Confederation general secretary Tai Nicholas.

"Mr Nicholas met me and liked me and he gave me a job as his secretary. He wants to train me to speak French and to drive a car," Leah says.

She is excited at the idea of meeting people from different countries and earning her own money.

- © Fairfax NZ News