For impoverished families, going to school is often the only chance they have to escape poverty. Unfortunately, it is also often inaccessible.

That was the case for Sherri, the eldest child of several brothers and sisters. Her father was absent, and her mother needed money for medical bills. The family didn’t have what they needed for food and clothing, much less school fees. With nowhere left to turn, she began selling herself to support her mother and siblings.

A vicious cycle

This situation is all too common in the region’s poorer districts. School fees compound the burden on the children: without money, they can’t get an education, and without an education, they can’t make money. 

The problem results in generational poverty and, sometimes, generational exploitation. For kids like Sherri, the situation can seem hopeless—a constant, desperate rat race with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Thankfully, that’s not where Sherri’s story ends.

The solution

Sherri was rescued from that vicious cycle back in 2023, and her life looks much different now. 

After rescue, she enrolled in our catering program, where she learned culinary skills and the all-important disciplines vital to attaining a steady job. Her hard work paid off: Sherri now works as a full-time chef for an event company, regularly preparing meals for over 150 people at a time. Her salary is enough to sustain her family and keep her free.

It’s a theme that’s become integral to how we rescue in many regions. Just being removed from exploitation isn’t enough; to help these kids truly remain free, they must receive some sort of training or education that prepares them to enter the workforce. 

For Sherri, it was catering. For others, it’s hairdressing or tailoring. Practical occupations with high demand are best, but even less successful ventures have proved fruitful in unexpected ways.

A worst-case scenarioFor a time, we trained survivors to become hospital nurse assistants. The girls worked diligently, quickly earning respect around the community whenever others saw them in their scrubs. But when their training was complete, something happened: the economy shifted for the worse. Medical facilities stopped hiring any new staff, leaving our proud graduates high and dry. 

Our staff were devastated. It was a worst-case scenario for the survivors. They’d worked hard for months in the hopes of getting a stable job, only to be let down in the end. With no work in sight, our Zimbabwe Project Coordinator Taraji confessed that she feared the girls would return to sex work to make ends meet.

Instead, something wonderful happened. The survivors had learned more than just medical knowledge during their training: they learned what they were capable of.

Every one of the graduates became an entrepreneur in her own right, setting up retail stalls or selling clothing. Their trauma resilience training, combined with the compassionate love of our staff, helped them see that they were precious in the sight of God, not just a body for sale. And during job training, they’d learned how to learn—how to pivot in the face of adversity. Armed with newfound confidence, they took control.

A new source of strength

That’s the power of our training programs. It’s more than just injecting a particular skill set into a survivor; it’s teaching her how to overcome adversity. These brave girls, along with a host of others, have exceeded anything we could have ever expected.

Will you help us further that mission? Your gift can help provide vital training to survivors desperately in need of stable income. Fill out the form below to rescue a child today.