POLOKWANE – Women’s day is all about giving thanks to the women who changed lives and made things better. Phrases like ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ come to mind and Nozizwe Mabuza is a product thereof.
Nozizwe is a 25-year-old woman with a story she hopes will inspire other women.
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“I reside in Shiluvana and joined Keep the Dream’s Scouts in 2006. It was the best decision I have ever made because if it weren’t for scouts I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she starts off.
She was raised by her grandparents while her mother was in Gauteng for work.
Nozizwe says a lot could have gone wrong in her life and she could have become a party animal, disrespectful towards her elders, neglected her school work and ruined her future because she had so much freedom to do whatever she wanted to do.
“I mean my grandparents were old, they didn’t have the energy to watch my every move but thankfully Keep The Dream introduced the scouts program to help me be a better person and make the best choices,” she adds.
She says through this and the assistance of neighbours in her village, she was always steered in the right direction.
As a scout, there are laws that you have to live by. “Laws such as “A scout must obey orders” and “A scout’s honour is to be trusted” impacted my life greatly. I did everything and followed every instruction given to me by my elders because I knew that they wouldn’t mislead me or lead me astray in any way,” she explains.
By being obedient to them, she was upholding a scout law. Her grandparents and everyone else trusted her and she did her best to ensure that she didn’t lose their trust because that was very important to her.
Keep The Dream, she explains, shaped her future because through their scouts program she was able to pass her matric and pursue the career of her dreams.
She said through the help of people who cared for her, she was able to make informed decisions about her life and the camps she attended taught her to be independent
“Today I’m a Bachelor of Law graduate because of Keep The Dream and people that did their best to make the child they saw, reach her dream,” she says.
Her motto in life is that there is truth in ‘What you reap, you sow’.
Her advice to young girls is to look for people in your life who will keep you on the right track and to follow what is right even if your friends do things differently.
“Some of my peers found the scouts program boring but if they knew the benefits I’m certain they would have joined too. I know they too had dream careers which could have been turned into a reality if they worked on them,” she adds.
She adds that getting the right advice from the right people can be very helpful because if you have sufficient and accurate information you’re able to make informed choices.
“I consider myself lucky and I’m grateful to have been a beneficiary of Keep The Dream and people who were not my parents but took the time to help me be a success. This is something that every girl can achieve if they just keep an eye out for the people around them who show them the way.”
