Provide Youth in Zimbabwe with Hope

During the period from mid 1980's through to 2005, Zimbabwe, along with most countries in Southern Africa, was reeling from the devastating pandemic of HIV/Aids. HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe reached a peak of 27%of the general population by early 2000 leaving tens of thousands of orphans in it's wake. Prevalence has steadily decreased over the years and is currently around 12% meaning roughly 1.5 million Zimbabweans are currently living with HIV.

This fact coupled with the unprecedented political and socio/economic crises experienced over the past two decades and the Covid pandemic has left millions of Zimbabweans unemployed and feeling hopeless and helpless. Our children and young adults have borne the brunt of these disasterous tsunamis of fate and are now facing a very uncertain future with few opportunities. Thousands have resorted to illegal activities such as gold panning, smuggling contraband across regional borders and prostitution. Even more thousands have fled to neighbouring countries in search of work opportunities and greener pastures.

Our young people are desperately in need of hope and help.

Sandy was diagnosed with HIV in July 2002. This was a major turning point in her life.  As a young woman of 20 years old with a two year child, her world came crashing down around her. The cultural stigma and embarrassment that she knew she would have to face was overwhelming and in fact so much so that she decided to end her life.  She carefully planned how and when she was going to carry out her suicide mission and managed to purchase enough agricultural poison to accomplish her task. She wrote a suicide note to her family and her young daughter begging their forgiveness.

On the assigned day she was about to leave her room when her younger brother paid her a surprise visit. He quickly discerned that his sister was incredibly stressed and managed to get her to open up to him about what was happening in her life. He calmed her down and over the next few days spent time talking with her and finally getting her to agree to attend  counseling sessions with a local HIV support group. This saved her life.

Sandy enrolled at a college and managed to complete her school leavers certificate and went on to attain her teaching diploma at a polytechnic.  She moved back to her rural home and secured a teaching job at a nearby primary school.  She volunteered to work part time at the local clinic and it was here that she realized there were many young people in the community that were going through the same trauma and dilemmas that she had experienced and resolved to help them by forming a support group in the area.

This gave rise to the Alpha Teens group.

Alpha Teens was founded in 2019 and now comprises 28 members ranging in age from 2 years old to 18 years old.  The initial focus of the group was to get the HIV affected youth together as a team and for them to realize that their situation need not be the end of their hopes and dreams but rather the beginning of a new phase in their lives....they adopted the saying " today is the first day of the rest of your life".

Sandy then explained to them the critical importance of taking their ARV medicine every day and at the same time every day.  Her focus lately has been to try to initiate micro income generating projects to enable the group to raise funds to plough back into training group members in different skills that will give them a better chance to find employment.  Weekly lessons are carried out at her homestead which is located 35 km south of the AFCA projects base on Morning Glory Farm. I recently attended one of the training sessions and was deeply impacted by their resolve, courage and hopefulness. AFCA is supporting these initiatives by assisting implement beekeeping training, goat rearing, providing training in sewing and handcrafts and establishing nutrition gardens for the group members.

As the confidence of individual group members is growing they are sharing their dreams and aspirations for the future.