Sterlendjie had a really rough beginning. Her mother gave her to a well-off family in the hope that she could go to school, nourished, and have a better childhood/upbringing. But when she find out the treatments that Sterlendjie was receiving (living as a restavek or child slave) and the fact that she had not been to school in the last 3+ years; the mother took her back and place at the orphanage.