"In my culture, it is very hard to talk about sex, relationships, or HIV/AIDS, with elders. It is considered disrespectful. So it was very hard for me to talk about sex and HIV with my parents or even my friends, because I thought that they would think badly about my life, or assume that maybe I was having sex. Then the time came for my desire to have…
Read More“Our father is a medical doctor. When he married our mother, she became a housewife. In 2006, our parents got divorced for reasons they were not willing to share with us. Our mother and our other siblings were forced to relocate to Lusaka, the capital city in Zambia. This is where hell on earth began, for us. Our mother was not working, but she…
Read More“One Sunday morning, while my mother was attending church service, I was sent to sell maize by the roadside. I didn’t feel comfortable, and I knew there was something wrong, so I went home. I rushed to the bathroom to check myself, and I discovered I was bleeding. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared of what was happening to me; it was…
Read More“There was a time when I was loved by my parents, but when I was 14, I made the mistake of falling pregnant. My parents were so disappointed in me. At that time, I was in grade nine. With exams steadily approaching I continued to attend school. My friends used to laugh at me and point fingers at me. I cried and prayed to God, my only true friend…
Read More“When I was a year old, my father passed away. My mother had to go door to door looking for petty jobs, so that she could buy food and send me and my sister to school. Because we were so poor, I attended when we could afford the fees but had to stay out when we could not. In 2014, when I was in grade eight, I had a baby girl. A year and a half…
Read MoreFifteen-year old Catherine was enjoying an ordinary school day until Lubuto Library staff walked into her grade 7 class to talk about DREAMS programs for adolescent girls. Catherine was immediately captivated and wanted to participate in the programs. As soon as school ended for the day, Catherine went straight to the library to find out…
Read MoreIn 2007, Bridget’s parents were involved in a fatal road accident where her father died on the spot and her mother went missing. To date, no one knows if her mother survived that accident or not. The lives of Bridget and her four siblings changed in a flash; they were now orphans. Since the accident, Bridget has lived with different relatives…
Read More24-year-old Hannah lives in Lusaka with her two children and her parents. Hannah first found out about the Mthunzi Library during an outreach session conducted by the library staff, and out of curiosity, decided to go and visit the library. Since that first visit, Hannah has become a regular at the library and treasures her time there so much that…
Read MoreWhen Elizabeth passed with the highest marks in the whole district during her Grade 7 examinations, her parents couldn’t have been more proud of their daughter’s achievement. All was set for her to attend an all-girls boarding school, but what started as a business trip from to Lusaka for Elizabeth’s mother took an unfortunate turn when she…
Read More“I have always wanted to be part of a something great, a movement of some kind. I want to belong, to be accepted into a group, to fit in. My desire to belong to a group got me involved with bad company. Most of my friends teased me about being 15 and still a virgin. They mocked me, saying ‘Virgins don’t exist because it’s old fashioned.’ I knew…
Read More"I was 11 years, too young to know much about sex but old enough to have breasts. I was at home with my baby sister and my 23-year-old cousin. My parents were at work. I was alone in my room when my cousin walked in and started fondling my breasts. I was terrified! There he was, someone I trusted and looked up to, shamelessly enjoying himself…
Read More15-year-old Adah lacked confidence in herself before she started visiting the library and participating in the mentoring program offered under Lubuto’s DREAMS Innovation Challenge grant. “I took advice from a friend [who] told me to face my fears. She said, ‘If you are scared of people they will be taking advantage of you.’” At the library…
Read More“I grew up in a violent home. Every chance my father had he would beat my mother, and his violent behavior resulted into them separating in 2006. Even before they separated, my mother was the only one encouraging me to go to school and paying my school fees. Most of the time, my father used the money for my school fees to drink alcohol…
Read MoreFor 15-year-old Claudia, it was a day like any other when she went to the library to pick up her cousin who was attending the DREAMS mentoring program at the Lubuto Model Library. “My cousin was always spending time at the library attending the DREAMS mentoring program. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about; the idea of having a…
Read MoreUpon finishing her secondary school in 2014, Tiffany was determined to pursue a career in media and become an award-winning journalist. But her dream didn’t match her reality. Her father’s salary as a truck driver was not enough to take care of her and her three siblings. She knew that her dreams of going to university would have to wait due to…
Read MoreThirteen-year-old Benjamin was taken from his village by his aunt who said that it was so that he could attend school in the town of Mumbwa. Instead, she arranged for him to work as a household helper for a family in Lusaka for extremely small compensation. Benjamin stayed for about one year, doing household chores, and then he run away…
Read More“I lost my mother immediately after I was born. I never met my father, only heard of him from my elder brother. At the age of 6, I went to Eastern Province, but my life there was hard. I only stayed because I had nowhere else to go. I lost my grandfather in 2008, and soon after his demise, I stopped going to school. I went back to school in 2010. By then I…
Read More“I was born in 1997. My parents died when I was just six months old. I grew up and started school in eastern province. In grade nine, I got pregnant and dropped out. The man who got me pregnant denied he had been responsible. After I had stayed out of school for three years, my family members refused to support me in completing my education…
Read More“Everything changed when my father died in 2015. My mother was just a housewife with no stable income to support her 10 children. I knew a lot was going to change at home, but my biggest fear was stopping school again.” 15-year-old Cece had already been out of school once for four years due to financial constraints, and with her father dying…
Read MoreLubutoDrama gives children and youth a chance to explore theater and performance, and some of our participants have taken what they learned and seized some wonderful opportunities. Two boys—Daniel and Victor—auditioned for and were cast in a footwear commercial in Lusaka. They were thrilled to be on TV, but it also represented a paid…
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