Lilian Munongowarwa

Published May 19, 2009 @ 01:58PM PT

I am not ashamed of letting people know what I have been through. One of my close relatives forced himself on me and after a month I discovered I was pregnant. When I gave birth my parents took me back home. That was the most difficult time of my life. People would not believe me. They accused me of seducing him.

I stayed at home for less than a month before my mother became ill. She was admitted to hospital but she did not recover and finally she passed away. At her death I was left to take care of my baby and my father who had become mentally ill. At times my father got lost and at times lost his clothes, so I had to go in search of him. The situation worsened and he could not walk on his own, he had to use a wheelchair. He finally passed away.

Life without parents is not easy. I was alone and had no way to go out and look for work because there was no one to look after my baby while I was gone. My younger brother later joined me. We worked in the fields so hard to get something to thrive on. We grew and sold vegetables. I also started a broiler-keeping project. It was initially difficult, but the other girls whose business projects were up and running supported and advised me through it all.

My business was so successful that I expanded it. I started peanut-butter processing. From the profits I got I managed to buy clothes and food for myself, my brother and my child. I also began helping some other children in my community to remain in school by paying their fees.

I am now a community health adviser and I am trying to help the gold-panners. They are digging trenches to get gold - they have even dug under a railway line and it is very dangerous. When I first came here I was so touched by the way people are trying to make ends meet. They use the money to buy dry buns so that they have a meal for the day. I couldn't take it as real that people are depending on dry buns for their full diet on a daily basis. Even worse are their clothes - they move about almost naked. Grandmothers who might be over sixty years of age travel for a distance of eight kilometers selling buns so that they will get money to support their orphaned grandchildren.

Young children of eleven and twelve are quitting school to look for employment. These children also go to join the gold-panners. It is not only money which they get. The girls also get pregnant. Mostly the men responsible would say to each other, "Just ditch the child with her baby." Girls are also getting sexually transmitted diseases. One young girl was even at primary school. She used to sell fruit and vegetables to the panners. She was impregnated and gave birth to a baby. The gold-panner refused to accept

responsibility. She went home but there was nothing and she was forced to return. Many like her end up risking their lives over and over again. Some as young as seventeen years have two children and are surviving from hand to mouth.

In my work I'm doing all I can to protect girls. I hope my story of what I have overcome will open doors for those who find themselves suddenly orphaned and have to take up responsibility for the whole family.