Moza Shadia is 16 years old. She is in her first year of Secondary School, called Senior 1 in Uganda, equivalent to the freshman year of high school in America. Shadia has had an adventurous and painful life, though she is still young. Her life spans three nations. She was born in Tanzania, her father’s home. Her mother is Rwandan, and she now lives in Uganda. Though her parents are both hardworking, they still are only able to provide minimal care to their 5 children. Shadia often had to stay home for school years at a time due to lack of funds for school fees.

Though her family is poor and her education has been inconsistent, that is the least of Shadia’s worries. She could manage to make a way for herself if she had only that burden to carry. Both of her parents are living and doing their best to provide what they can for the family, but she cannot stay with them. Shadia’s father has not performed the duties of a father to her. He has totally marred the image what a father should be. When she was just 8 years old, he began taking advantage of her. He didn’t begin all at once. Slowly by slowly, he would progress, waking her from sleep in the night, telling her to keep quiet so no one else would hear. Shadia was young and confused and afraid. She didn’t know exactly what was happening at first. After a few years, she couldn’t bare the shame anymore and told her mother. But her mother had never suspected that anything of that sort was going on at all and didn’t want to believe what her daughter was saying was true. So Shadia continued to keep quiet, unable to resist his strength and afraid of his threats if she spoke out again. As she began to develop physically, the inevitable happened. She became pregnant at the age of 13. When her father found out, he immediately took her for a forced abortion. She still remembers to this day how the baby looked.

She managed to hold all of this in for many years, until she came to Calvary Chapel and felt safe enough to tell of her pain. As her story became known, it took some time for a solution to be found. A solution came, but just after she became pregnant for the second time. She was able to be removed from her parents’ home immediately. And every effort was made to care for her and the baby, but God had other plans for her life. He took the baby home to be with Him. Though the experience was traumatic and painful, Shadia was freed to put the past behind her and begin a new life pursuing her education and becoming part of a new family with Asifiwe Child Care.

Shadia still has a lot of healing ahead of her, but she is a courageous and ambitious girl. She dreams of becoming a lawyer and is eager to finish her education so she can in turn help her mother be comfortable and her younger sisters to pursue a future of their own.