Nischa Daniels-Smith: Uses faith to transform her life

Tamara Bailey/Gleaner Writer

AS A child, Nischa Daniels-Smith suffered much physical and verbal abuse from the hands of those she thought would protect her.

She was robbed of her childhood, and her sanity was tested constantly.

But Daniels-Smith learned the art of defying the odds and using what threatened to kill her to fuel her strength.

“My childhood was painful. I grew up living in a one-bedroom board house with two younger brothers and one sister. My mom was a single parent with a lot of mental issues caused by her past, and so I had to take care of my siblings,” Daniels-Smith said.

The 31-year-old said that she later suffered from severe depression that caused suicidal thoughts after her mother left for the United States of America on a farm-work programme and never returned.

But somewhere, deep down inside, she knew that giving up was not an option, and leaving this world with the stain of poverty and the limiting beliefs placed on her would taint her story.

“I changed the meaning of poverty. I believe that being poor means ‘passing over opportunity repeatedly’ because it’s not money that made me what I am today. It is simply opportunity. It’s the opportunity of selling books for four years that paid my college tuition, and it’s the opportunity of going to college that allowed me to meet my darling husband, among other things,” she noted. Now a social worker, Daniels-Smith lives every day to help persons, who were in a similar situation, find the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Every day, opportunity comes knocking at our door. It’s what you do with it that will determine how life responds to you. If you start responding positively to your opportunities, then your dreams shall not die, your plans shall not fail, your destiny shall not be aborted, and God will grant you the desire of your heart.”

Happily married to her college sweetheart for the last seven years and mother to a three-year-old boy and four-month old girl, Daniels-Smith said her life would not have panned out the way it did without God at the centre.

“My husband and I are both Christians and have been involved in church for over 15 years. Managing work and family is the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life, but God has blessed me with a wonderful husband who is domesticated and loves his children dearly. If I could marry him again in the next life, I would do it over and over and over and over and over again,” she said.

This woman of God believes that everyone should live, love, laugh, and live not just for self, but for others as well.