Prevention is better than cure
One can tell a story after he had faced some challenges. Life was turning hard for her, so she thought to elope to a twenty-four year old boy. She was impregnated by that boy. The boy started to deny his pregnancy and he finally ran away to South Africa. She reported the case to the police but it did not work because the boy was nowhere to be found. Joyce (not her real name) was so stressed and she knew people would laugh at her, so she thought of aborting the pregnancy. Her plan succeeded. She did not tell anyone even her mom. She then told her mom that she was leaving for work.
By Theresa Dirikwe (Peer Educator – Nyanyadzi youth centre)
She went to work in Mutare. She worked for a couple who had three children. She was a house maid. Joyce was welcomed there with total respect. She worked so hard and was to be given forty dollars per month. The father of the house which worked for started to admire her and he finally proposed her. He convinced her that he was going to increase her monthly. Joyce was after money, so she agreed to fall in love with the father of the house. They dated for so long and the man’s wife did not know what was going on. The next door neighbors started to know everything which was going on. They tried to tell the wife but she did not believe that, she claimed her husband was perfect.
The man started demanding for sex from Joyce, she tried to deny but he threatened her. She persuaded him use condoms but he refused. She said she was going to tell his wife and he continued threatening her. He said he will kill her if she does not comply. She eventually gave in and had unprotected sex without any method of contraception. Joyce tried to cry for help but there was no one around. She was bribed by the man and told not to tell anyone about the issue.
Then one day the mother of the wife took Joyce’s phone and saw the messages which showed that the two were in love. She was so shocked and Joyce was beaten so badly. Joyce was asked to leave and she did not disagree. She just took her bag and boarded a bus back home to where her mother stayed. When she got home this shocked her mother and stressed her deeply. She was so distressed. She took Joyce to the hospital for HIV testing and the result was positive. She also received a pregnancy test and the result revealed that she was three months pregnant. She felt ashamed. Her mother felt disappointed, so she asked her to have an abortion again but it failed. Joyce lived with her mother until she gave birth to a baby boy.
