After mom and dad’s death, my uncle took me in. We lived together in his house. He was a businessman, running a small scale business. His wife was not employed, they had two kids Vanessa and Herbert. My uncle and aunt treated me like their own daughter. They supported me a lot and I was proud of them.

After one year my uncle started running dad’s business. He was managing the company just fine. I wasn’t paying much attention about dad’s wealth, as I was busy with my education. One day I was coming from college and I heard the radio saying that my uncle had sold my dad’s shares to other companies and that he had sold the house too. I was quite upset about the news, mostly the selling of the house. My family house held a lot of my parent’s memories.

After dinner I asked uncle, “Why did you sell the house?”

All he said was that I didn’t have any property. I was angry that he sold the house and dad’s shares, and at the same time he transferred all the property to his wife and children’s name.

I filed a complaint to the court, but uncle bribed all the judges. They didn’t give me a single property. They made me become a maid in their house. I used to clean the dishes, wash their clothes and dust off their books. I’d cook dinner, lunch and breakfast. My uncle stopped paying my college fees, his wife made me sell mandasi, so humiliating, as my rich friends said. Indeed money attracted people; all the friends I had were nowhere to be found, I was all alone.

My aunt offered me one meal a day. If I had breakfast, no lunch and dinner. I became thin, I wasn’t looking good at all. All the fancy clothes I had, lovely shoes, expensive phones, it was all gone.

I complained about the way they treated me, instead of improving the treatment they threw me out of their house. I didn’t have any shelter. It was such a cold day when they threw me out, rain was falling as well. I was like a mad women; I didn’t know where to go or what do. That night I slept with a bunch of beggars under a bridge.

Holding tight to my mom and dad’s photo, no one talked to me. When the sun rose I tried my luck to find a job, but I couldn’t find anything. I went back to the bridge but there was no place to sleep.

So I went to find shelter at Rush’s bar, it was twenty kilometres from the bridge. The owner of the bar come out and she started shouting at us for making her look bad. No one answered, we were all quite ready to be thrown out, but instead she offered us food and let us sleep on her bar’s veranda for one night.

The owner came back again and held my hand. She asked me to get up. We entered and she asked my name and where I was from. I told her the whole story. She offed me a job to dance for her in the bar. I didn’t like that at all, but I had no choice but to take the job.

Dancing day and night, making drunk men smile. I became a good bar dancer and in a few days, due to my dance moves, Mike Fisha, a famous singer, asked me to dance in his upcoming music videos.

I danced so well that his song received the award of being the best video of the year. Due to this achievement I was signed by the Machina movie company, as a new actress. Love Spices was my first movie and it was number one in the market.

My life really changed. I consider Mike an angel sent just for me from my parents. My name was everywhere, I became such a famous actor across the globe.

I went to court again for my parents’ property. My uncle was found guilty and he was sent to jail for ten years, so was his wife. I feel proud to have my mom and dad’s memories with me.

I thank Nita because if she didn’t offer me a job back then I would have still been begging now. What I can tell you is that helping someone in need help can push someone far in life.

Everyone in the audience was quiet after my speech. Some people even shed tears, but I also made them laugh by the crazy performance I had that day. Everyone was really happy and I felt warm inside me.

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