Stories

"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…

“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…

“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…

“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…

“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…

Fifteen-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…

In 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…

24-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…

When 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…

“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…

"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…

15-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…

“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…

For 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…