Gloria da Rosa

I am Gloria da Rosa, 20 years old, I am using my mother’s Surname because I never knew my father. When I was born, my mother was divorced from my father and he never came looking for me. I started to live with my grandmother from the time I was 3 years old because it was hard for my mother to take care of me and when I turned 10 years old my mother passed away and that was a difficult moment for me same as for my grandmother, but she managed to put me to school. With no experience in life by the time I turned 15 years old I got pregnant and I moved from my mother‘s house to live with my husband, which there the reality was other. He was from another province and we were both from a totally different background and culture but I did not mind. We had a difficult relationship until I gave birth. Because of the suffering situation, when the child was 1 year old my grandmother asked me to go back home to live with her, so I did. I managed to get a job where I stayed employed for 4 months and I managed to save MZM 7,000.00 – (ZAR 2,300.00) and told my grandmother that I was thinking of starting a business and she agreed and supported the idea. I had to go to Maputo to do market survey and I decided to buy cloths. In the beginning I was doing business for a living. When I joined the Programme of Gender Links as part of the 20 GBV survivor I realised that I can do more on my business as a result of applying the knowledge on management, division of profit and expenses.

I also learnt about Gender Based Violence and human rights – now the father of my son came and asked me to go back to him, I told him I can’t because I need to organize myself, go back to school and continue with my dreams and my business and that will be difficult if I go back to the relationship I had with him.

At the time I was with him I was young with no choice, but today I have the choice to decide what is good for me. I learnt from the experience I went through and now I share it with my young sister that, she must use condoms in case she is practising sexual intercourse with her boyfriend, she needs to continue with her dreams and not stop because of unplanned pregnancy.

I taught my son to respect girls and know that he is equal to a girl and they both have the same rights, things are not resolved by means of violence but people must sit and talk – good communication is the key to avoid violence. Men must respect women, “we are not sex instruments we are human beings like them”.

I help my friends to avoid evolvements with men as a way to gain vantages, and encourage them to study and also to work because this is how they will have respect from the men when they are self-sustain, emotionally and economically.

I am so grateful to this programme because it opened my mind in a business side as well as in the social side, now I have earned respect in my neighbourhood and among the family because I am doing my business that is visible and I am taking care of my grandmother, sister and my son.

I am so thankful to be a part of a programme of Entrepreneurship with Gender Links

By 2013, I’ll already have a big and sophisticated shop. So I would like to have shops around the county.