Talent’s story

Orphaned at the age of ten, Talent is now one of the top students in her class at medical school

When Talent was ten years old, her mother left the rural village where she and her three children lived in Zimbabwe to look for a job. She never returned. Two years prior to that, at the age of eight, Talent had lost her father to kidney failure. Now parentless, Talent and her two younger siblings were taken in by their aunt, a shopkeeper. She struggled to support the children, barely managing to scrape together the money to send them all to primary school.

“I didn’t want to struggle, being poor all of my life. I wanted to change my life through education. I knew people who had done it, and they were my inspiration.” Talent , 19, medical studentBut when Talent graduated from 7th grade, her aunt told her that she could not afford to send her to high school. “She tried to comfort me,” says Talent. “She suggested that I work for one year and save my money, so I could pay my way the following year.” But it was clear to Talent that this was only a temporary solution. What would happen after her first year of school, when her money ran dry? She would have no choice but to drop out and begin working once again.

Thirteen-year-old Talent began to despair. “All my life, I have wanted to achieve something that is my own. I didn’t want to continue to struggle, being poor all the time. I wanted to change my life through education. I knew people who had done it: people from my village who couldn’t even afford clothing or food, who had their schooling paid for, and now they work for banks, they work for non-governmental organizations. These people showed me what was possible. They were my inspiration.”

One week before classes started, the head teacher at Talent’s school called her to his office and told her that the school had chosen her as one of a handful of girls to be supported by Camfed. All of her school expenses, from her fees down to her soap and her bus fares, would be taken care of. “The next day, I didn’t speak to a soul,” she says. “I spent the whole day praying and thanking God for this amazing news.”

With Camfed’s support, she was able to complete her high school education with flying colors. In August, she learned she was accepted into medical school at the University of Zimbabwe. “I have always wanted to be successful, to be a cut above the rest,” says Talent. “I want to be an independent woman who can take full responsibility of her life and be in a position to help other women in need.”

In order to register at the university, Talent set off at 7 in the morning to get to the Camfed offices in the town of Chivhu. From there, there was no public transportation to the capital city of Harare, where the university is located, and Talent couldn’t afford private transportation; so she negotiated a ride from a truck driver, who crammed 15 people into his truck bed. Fifteen hours after setting out, Talent arrived in Harare. It was 10pm, and the university offices had long since closed. “I didn’t want to look for the offices in the dark, so I spent the night in the bus station,” says Talent.

She didn’t sleep, however. She was too frightened. She had heard stories of robbers who would swipe your luggage right out from under your head while you dozed. Instead, she stayed awake all night, sitting protectively on her bag. As soon as daylight broke, she caught a bus to the university, paid her registration fees, and become an official student at the University of Zimbabwe.

Today Talent is in her third month of medical school. The schoolwork is demanding, but there are other more fundamental challenges. Because pocket money is scarce, she forfeits public transportation and instead walks two hours each way to school every day.

Textbooks, too, are a luxury beyond her means. In order to study, Talent has to borrow books from her friends. None of these issues seem to be impeding her progress: she recently received results on her first exam, and she received a 66 percent– well above the class average of 52 percent. “I am accustomed to struggling in my life,” says Talent, “so I try not to complain when things are difficult.”

Unlike many girls her age in Zimbabwe, Talent has little interest in marriage at this point. “My diploma will be my husband,” she says. She is determined not to let anything stand between her and her dream of becoming a doctor. “I don’t want to disappoint those who are supporting me,” she says. “Now that I am in medical school, I have faith that the gates to success are wide open. I just have to walk through them.