daniel chigunwe
Isdore Guvamombe
It is about 4 am and silly cold. A chilling breeze is prelude to dawn as it wafts westwards from the direction of Mupfure River to Katawa Village on Mhondoro Ngezi, sending tree leaves and tinder dry grass swinging and singing.
Theresa Garikayi, – a young mother of one- has just awaken but her baby, husband and in-laws are still in deep slumber. She shakes off the lethargy of sleep through incessant yawning and stretching and thereafter, engages in domestic chores before taking a quick bath.
Soon she wears school uniform and rides on the bicycle to cycle 15 km on a dirty road to the secondary school, past a scullery of homesteads, wrapped in savannah and miombo woodlands and stunted bush shrubbery.
At school, Theresa immediately adjusts from being a mother, wife and daughter-in-law to a judicious learner and reduces herself to the level of other learners, as etiquette demands.
This has become her routine schedule except in instances where the bicycle loaned to her by her mother-in-law breaks down or her baby gets very sick and she is forced not to attend class.
Having dropped out of school at the age of 17 and subsequently plunged into an early marriage, Theresa, has convinced her husband and in-laws to be allowed to go back to school. After much difficult and prolonged negotiations, they eventually allow her, albeit hesitancy.
“I dropped out of school in 2020, when I was supposed to sit for O Level examinations and then got married. In 2021, I gave birth and started doing menial jobs to supplement the earnings of my husband, who is an artisanal miner.
“I realised I needed to refocus my life by going to back school while at the same time, keeping my marriage and also remaining a daughter-in-law.
“After lengthy negotiations they allowed me to go back to school and my mother-in-law gave me her bicycle, because all the nearby schools refused to give me place until I got the place at Rutara High School, 15 km away.”
“I sat for national examinations in November last year and passed. I now targeting becoming a nurse and the headmaster has since pledged to pay for my nursing college fees,’’ she said.
Theresa is a beneficiary various National ids Council (NAC) community-based interventions such as the Sister to Sister programme where mentors worked on her mentality and she has now become a symbol of hope for many grils.
Theresa is also a beneficiary of the good heard and professional interpretation of the education statutes by Rutara headmistress Mrs Loice Mutimbiri.
“When she came looking for a place, I took a gamble .The idea of not enrolling her crossed my mind. But I was afraid she would influence other girls badly and lead them astray. I then decided to give her a chance. She worked hard and I want to thank the National AIDS Council and Sister to Sister for teaching this girl well. She humbled herself and worked very hard just like any normal pupil. Now she has passed and am happy,” said Mrs Mutimbiri.
Theresa believes that the NAC Sister to Sister programme that works with disadvantaged girls, especially school drop outs and those in child marriages, helped change the course of her life.
“My mentor, Mrs Thandiwe Musinami convinced me at one of the Sister to Sister sessions told me that there was nothing to be ashamed of. I went to look for a place at a local school and they rejected me saying I would contaminate other pupils with sexual thoughts since I was now married.
“I then decided to find a school far from my Village. I went to Rutara Secondary School accompanied by my husband and we met the school head and I got a place,” said Theresa.
In 2020, Zimbabwe passed the Education Amendment Act of 2020 which allowed re-entry of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers to school.
And, Rutara headmistress Mr Mutimbiri should be applauded for correctly interpreting the law and giving Theresa the chance she much needed.
Mhondoro District in Mashonaland West, like many other areas is a hot spot for artisanal gold miners and with the mining comes the hard cash, which in deeds is used by men to lure girls.
NAC has come up with a buffet of projects to improve the livelihoods of many such girls and women.
In this matrix, Theresa has become an epitome of conquest, a model for teenage mothers who dropped out of school and wish to realign their life through education, courtesy of NAC.
And for Theresa, the sky is the limit.
Online Reporter