What Happened Next
Memory was nine when a truck driver raped her. Four years later she discovered she was HIV positive. Initially rejected by other children, Memory courageously shared her story with them. Now 20, she is a youth ambassador helping other children to learn to live with HIV. Your support for VSO’s work has made a huge and important difference to Memory’s life and enabled her to help other children coping with traumatic circumstances.
My parents died when I was young and I went to live with my auntie. My brothers and sisters went to live with other relatives. It was the end of our education because we had to stop school and work. Not long after a truck driver who was giving me a lift home raped me.
I missed going to school so I used to bother my auntie a lot, “I want to go back to school, I want to go back to school”. So she decided to send me to Lusaka where I stayed in an orphanage called City of Hope. I was able to go to school at a Community School that was supported by VSO and which offers free education to vulnerable children.
It was during this time I discovered I was HIV positive. It was 2003 and people didn’t have enough information about HIV so I was shunned by the other girls. When they hear about someone who is positive, they just see a prostitute, someone who has been sleeping around with boys.
When the stigma was too much and I couldn’t cope any more I decided to tell them what had happened to me. I called them in groups according to age and shared my story so that they would understand. It was my toughest moment but the people who were bullying me stopped.
I saw then that there was a need in Zambia for young people to come out, to speak out for other young people in need. I knew about VSO from my school and I found out they were having a conference about caring for orphans and vulnerable children. I applied to attend and it was there that I learned about hero books.
Hero books are given to children who are going through difficult situations to help them cope. You use the book to write your story and express your feelings about your problem. The hero is a person who is able to overcome the problem without hurting others so you become the hero of your own story.
I used to think very evil ideas about the man who raped me and I used to feel if I saw him I would kill him with my bare hands, but now I know that the problem is his problem not mine. If I were to see him today, I would just look at him and nothing else.
After making my own hero book I began to train other to write theirs. I have helped children across Zambia and even other countries. I feel very proud because even though I am still young the work I am doing is really amazing.
