Wanzirayi Meke

In 1993, when my father lost his job at the mine where he worked, that was when the lot fell heavily on my family. It was then that my family had to move to the rural areas. I was in Form One and my father insisted that he had no money to pay for those of us who were in secondary to continue in school. My sister and I decided we needed to get employment to help the family but with only my primary school completion, I had no choice of a job. So I was employed as a maid.

I was not used to being given a list of things to do but I was soon going to learn. I worked for a lady and in the morning as she left for work she would give me the schedule for the day. I did all the work and sometimes the task was beyond one person. I used to do all the household duties and to feed the children and as if that was not enough, she would come home in the evenings and yell at me. That was the hell I was in. It is very hard to work for a person who does not appreciate you. I tried by all means to please my employer, but she never appreciated it.

That is when I realised the importance of education. I realised that if one is educated one can do better things. I used to see people my age going to school but I could not join them.

Though the money that I earned was little, I helped my family. I worked for one year and one month and early in 1996, I was able to go back to school with the money I had saved. When people saw me going to school, they thought it was the joke of the year. I did not blame them because most people believe that if one is pushed out of school for such a long time it will be impossible to complete. I managed to prove them wrong.

Wanzirayi Meke enrolled in 2003 at the University of Zimbabwe to study business
administration.