Walks of Life

I remember the night everything changed. The air was thick with silence, the kind that presses against your chest, making it hard to breathe. I was twelve when I lost both my parents—one moment I was a child, and the next, I was staring into a future I didn't understand.

They say grief comes in waves, but for me, it was an ocean—endless, unrelenting. My brother and I left behind everything we knew in Chimanimani and moved to Mutare, a city that felt as foreign as another world. The streets buzzed with life, but I felt invisible, just another girl carrying the weight of a past no one could see.

I struggled. Not just with fitting in, but with the voices in my head whispering, You don’t belong here. I was a girl from a small village, with an education interrupted by tragedy. The odds were against me. But something inside refused to surrender.

I found refuge in stories—both my own and those of others who had faced impossible odds. Writing became my escape, my rebellion against a past that tried to define me. That’s how Walks of Life was born. Annaloice, my protagonist, isn’t just a character—she’s me. She’s every girl who has ever been told she’s not enough, every soul that has been broken but still finds the courage to rise.

But my story didn’t end with the book. I wanted to do something. To take my pain and turn it into purpose. That’s why I founded Rail of Hope, a platform where young people can find the support I once desperately needed. Through mentorship and storytelling, I help others see what I had to learn the hard way—our struggles don’t define us. They prepare us.

Today, I stand as a Siyakha Champion with the DREAMS program, advocating for young women, teaching them that resilience is a muscle they can build. Every day, I meet girls who remind me of my younger self, standing at the edge of despair, wondering if they have a future. And every day, I tell them the truth:

You are stronger than you know. And this? This is just the beginning.