My name is Ford, I am Zambian born. I am the first son of the two male children. I was born from a father of West African origin country of Mali, and a Zambian mother. My father was a Muslim and my mother a Christian. This made it very hard for me. The Muslim religion allowed my father to marry more wives and this was not fine with my mother and that led to them getting a divorce when I was 7 years old. At that time my father refused to send me to school because he wanted me to become a precious stone dealer as is the case for most West Africans who live in Zambia.

My mother then decided to go back to my grandparents’ house. We also decided to run away from our father who wanted us to become Muslim’s, and the step mother coming in the house made the environment hostile, so we had no choice but to escape. We started school though my mother had no job and income. Thank God my grandparents could do some small business to earn money which helped with school fees at the time. After realizing how difficult it become for my grandparents, my mother decided to move to the capital city to look for a job, to enable her to support us but it did not go well. This led me to start a small business of selling charcoal. I was able to make profit and buy uniforms and pay school fees and buy school shoes.

At the age of 9, I started going to United Church of Zambia and I later joined the Boy’s Brigade where they taught us a lot. Their motto was, Be Sure and Steadfast. At the age of 12, I began to understand more about life and I begun to feel sorrow for my mother who was struggling in the capital city. I asked my grandparents to let me go and join my mother, whatever the case, so that through my inborn business acumen I could help my mother pull through the challenges, so I left. I continued doing business while going to school and by then my mother was only affording to rent a room of which she divided into two and we could sleep in the other side. This was painful for me and I begun to pray to God to give me strength to build a big house one day so that my mother could have her own big room.

At the age of 24 I lost my father. There was no reconciliation because he stood on his religious principles of not allowing us to do anything with him unless we converted to his religion. After two years we also lost our mother. Life was not difficult by then because of the experience I had gained in small business. I managed to pay tuition fees on my own until I finished college.

I was fortunate to apply for a job at one of the largest banks in Zambia, and I got accepted. This transformed my life, but the sad part was that I could not share my earnings with my mother as she had already passed away. I went through a lot of discrimination at work because of my foreign surname. My workmates would not treat me fairly including my superiors. I continued working, but after seven years the discrimination and humiliation became worse. By that time I had managed to build my own house and had my own happy family, so I decided to quit and leave with a good record before it was too late for me, because the financial sector is a sensitive one.

Thereafter, I decided to go into the printing business, and I volunteered with some N.G.O.’s. Later I came to know about The Victory Tips Program, of which I work as a peer support worker. I feel that the challenges I have experienced will help me impact many people positively around the world.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:57 NIV