Chronicle Editor
Flora Fadzai Sibanda, [email protected]
SINGLE mothers!! This is a label most women who are raising their children alone carry every day in society.
Despite the good work that some are doing, women faced with this situation say they are still labelled with negativity and are surrounded with bad things only.
One single mother Chipo Muchangana who shared her story said she did not become a single mother because she wanted but the situation around her forced her.
Unlike most single mothers Muchangana had her ideal white wedding, with a priest, exchange of vows and took a walk down the isle.
“Everything was just perfect I am originally from Masvingo and my husband was from Plumtree. Unfortunately back then there was still a lot of tribal issues including people from our side of the country and the ones here. So my in laws were not very fond of me, ” she said.
To add to the mistreat, she would get from her in laws her husband also started being unfaithful and had an affair with someone who was from his tribe.
“To cut the story short my husband went and got married while he was married to me. There was a time when we had to change some marriage clause and unfortunately we did not go. So by the time I discovered my husband was now married to someone else and tried to dispute it, the courts told me I had no ground to stand on,” said Muchangana.
She said her husband left her with four children who ever the years have had to understand that their father moved on with another family.
“I was involved in a lot of activities in church but after everyone found out about my ordeal the church immediately cast me out. Today I am labelled a who*e by everyone on the streets because they see me with my children every day,” she said.
For Maureen Moyo, her experience taught her the that despite of doing everything that society sees as proper some women are just not lucky.
“I kept myself pure for such a long time as society expects us women to be. When I thought I had found the perfect guy I discovered when I was already pregnant that he had a wife that he was hiding. Just like that I realized I had been tricked and there was nothing I could do because he was married and I did not want to be the other woman,” said Ms Moyo.
She said having to tell her son that his father was not around and would not be around for a long time was not an easy thing.
Ms Moyo said the society did not make it easy for her as people would often refer to her son as the child of a home wrecker.
“It’s really painful because l did not chose to be a single mother. No woman wants to sit done and explain to her child that his father has another family he is living with,” she said.
A local reverend Sikhalo Cele said because of how society was already unfair towards single mothers the church had a mandate to love and create a safe space for these women.
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