By shylet gabaza
It is every girl’s dream to grow up into a beautiful and strong woman and my dream has always been to become successful so that I could take care of my mother who has been unwell for a number of years now, as well as my grandmother who brought me up. Having been raised by my grandparents after my father left us before I was old enough to know him, I had to struggle through school as we survived on very little income. On a good day, we would have one meal of mealie meal porridge as any income we received was channelled towards my mother’s medication. I had been at home and idle for two years looking after my mother when I was selected for the Shine programme. Initially, I joined because I had nothing else to do. It appeared to be a better alternative to staying home and dealing with the various challenges I had to contend with. Little did I know that I had set myself on a path of no return to a huge positive transformation of my life.
I joined the clothing construction group, went through a training programme that culminated into work-related learning at a huge corporate clothing manufacturing factory. After the three months of attachment, I was pleasantly delighted to be offered a job at the same company. My life has never been the same.
My family is happy and my mother’s health has improved. I have even bigger dreams of owing my own design studio and I cant wait for my bright future. Shine opened my eyes to a world of possibilities that I did not know existed. I am now studying to complete my O’ Level qualification and I will be enrolling for A’ Level soon as I pass. I realise now that success is when opportunity meets hardwork. I am grateful to Lafarge for raising me up to become the big dreamer that I am today.
