Rural Zimbabwean Girl Achieves University Dream

Growing up in the rural community of Chefunye, Zimbabwe - where women and girls were stereotyped as less capable - Gracsious Ncube never dreamt that she would one day be pursuing a master's degree.

Her chances of education were dim; however this changed with support from Plan's child sponsorship program and her parents' encouragement.

Gracsious walked 5 miles daily to Chefunye School; she braved chilly mornings and had lessons under trees with pupils scrambling for few textbooks. She had to endure the cold weather until Plan moved in to support the community to build classrooms.

Support from Plan

Gracsious was among the first children from Chefunye to be enrolled as a sponsored child under Plan's children education and development program. To date, Plan directly supports 50,000 children and indirectly supports about 250,000 in Zimbabwe.

"Plan's support through the school motivated us to enjoy education through providing good classrooms, school uniforms and other learning materials to shield us from the chilly mornings," reminisces Gracsious.

Academic excellence

Gracsious devoted her time towards academic excellence and passed her high school examinations. She went on to study for a bachelor of science and obtained an honors degree in sociology at the University of Zimbabwe.

Her passion for education has led her to pursue a master's degree in development studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam's International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Netherlands.

"I feel honored to have made it this far. Where I grew up, girls were under pressure to prove that they too can do well academically."

Breaking barriers

Professionally, she aspires to be a holistic development practitioner working for the vulnerable. Grascious wishes to see girls break all the social and cultural barriers.

"I want to ensure that the girl child understands that she is valuable and can achieve more. Women and girls have what it takes and it's a matter of exploring territories that were previously known to be for men. I want to see them live their dream and attain their worth," she says.