In her mind, Melisa Pfudzai considered herself of no value and purpose. Stricken with grief after her father’s death, she lost hope in everything and did not think her life would come to anything. After Melisa’s father died, the family of five lost their only source of income leaving Melisa’s ageing mother to fend for the family. But Melisa’s mother could only do so much to provide for her children and Melisa dropped out of school before sitting for her grade seven examinations.
With nothing to do, Melisa started prostitution at 13 years for survival and she would leave home for days to cohabitate with her ‘clients’ where she faced all forms of abuse. At 14, Melisa fell pregnant and she did not know the person responsible for her pregnancy. Melisa’s pregnancy was a high risk due to her age, but she managed to give birth without any major complications. Melisa’s mother, Maudi Pfudzai, was left heartbroken since she could not do much to dissuade her daughter from going into prostitution. All that Maudi could say was, “Akandirwadzisa gotwe rangu………ndakasvika pakupererwa,” (Melisa caused me so much pain, I did not know what else to do). Now a teen-mother, Melisa could barely afford to look after her child and her mother could not do much for her grandchild either.
Some of Melisa’s friends who were part of the DREAMS clubs encouraged her to approach a DREAMS club facilitator to obtain information on how she could become a DREAMS beneficiary. The DREAMS program in Melisa’s area was being implemented by Diocese of Mutare Community Care Program (DOMCCP), a sub-partner to FHI360. Melisa did what her friends encouraged her to do and after obtaining information on DREAMS, she was screened and successfully enrolled into a Health4Life 360° DREAMS club. She attended all DREAMS club sessions where she was trained on HIV and Sexual Violence Prevention. Melisa found the sessions informative since she had experienced violence of all forms whilst engaging in prostitution. Having completed her sessions, Melisa went on to attend the five-day Internal Savings and Lending (ISAL) training where afterwards, she joined a group of other DREAMS young girls and started a savings club. The $1 allowances they received during the training served as the startup capital. Since then, her life has been different.
Melisa went on to benefit from the educational subsidy support and she was enrolled back into school to complete her primary education. She went on to further enroll for a three- month baking and catering course with a local technical college and she excelled in her studies and passed the course. She was awarded with a nationally recognized certificate. Melisa is now an employable youth and before Covid-19 lockdown in April, Melisa had been offered employment at a local restaurant.
Today, Melisa is a different young woman with a positive outlook on life, in her own words she described her life as follows, “It was like I was born again when I joined DREAMS, I started to see life differently and I felt I can still be someone better in life. I realized that I was too young to give up on my life. Prostitution was nothing besides a waste of time for me and It gave me a lot of challenges and I almost risked losing my life to abusive men who were my trade clients since others were violent”.
Melisa is happy to have been equipped with good skills and now she is independent to make informed decisions. In the meantime, she is baking and selling the products to local people. Maudi is now a proud mother and to her it is a miracle to see her child escaping the clutches of prostitution which had robbed Melisa of her innocence and future, “I want to thank DOMCCP and the DREAMS project for making my child dream again. Indeed, the program restored her hope. Melisa can dream again like other normal beings. I am proud that she is even taking care of me. She bought me several things from her small business profits,” said Maudi.