Igniting the spark in Joy´s life

Joy grew up like other children; she would do household chores such as washing utensils, clothes, cooking and playing and going to church.  However, she didn’t have enough resources to help them meet all their basic needs and in most cases, she used to have only one meal a day. Her mother, whom she lives with, had no stable income but got by working on casual jobs such as doing other people's laundry. 

At 13 years old, Joy began helping her mother with laundry. Three out of the four years that Joy was in high school, she had been involved in drug abuse. The financial constraints would see her be in and out of school due to lack of school fees. When she was in her final year, Joy quit using drugs and decided to concentrate on her studies. Luckily, Joy was in luck as she was able to secure Constituency Development Funds bursary which enabled her to complete high school. Unfortunately after finishing high school, Joy was unable to secure more funds for college, leaving her with no choice but to stay at home. She had dreams of studying journalism, but with no one to support her, she fell back into using drugs and would get money by doing other people´s laundry.  

In her neighbourhood, there was a group of friends who seemed to be financially well off and Joy admired them. She was 19 at the time she was almost exposed to sexual exploitation by these friends. Luckily, a peer educator identified her and introduced her to a project implemented by K-Note in partnership with Terre des Hommes Netherlands.