Chido Govera

"People don't see what they have, they're busy looking at what they don't have and worrying about how they can get there, and yet when they start by appreciating what they have, then their lives will be different and their goal in life will not be to project what they don't have and to use it to define themselves when they can learn to define themselves by what they have."

"I learned to redefine myself regardless of what happened to me when I was a kid, I've been able to reclaim myself. This is something that's required for every individual. We are not what happened to us."

"The reason why I go into communities, select groups of young orphans, empower those and bring them back into the communities to inspire change there is because we need to change the way change is viewed. People say politicians or the grownups or the successful ones are going to change things in the country, but I think everyone has a part to contribute."

"I strongly believe that, regardless of what is happening in politics – not just in Zimbabwe but in many different parts of the world – if we want to change things, we will need to go to the grassroots and teach them to stand up for themselves, because if we can empower them beyond being a victim of a political situation, then we are making change happen."

"It was tough"

"I remember I cried many days after that and I used to watch other kids going to school that I used to run around with, and it was painful. But it was more painful to go to school and spend the whole time thinking about what's going to happen when I get home. Getting back home to watch the hungry faces of my granny and little brother. It was unbearable"

"The reason why I was supposed to find it attractive to marry him was because he had two sisters that were going to South Africa to buy clothing and coming back to Zimbabwe"

"I did not go because I realised if I got married, then I was leaving my grandmother and my little brother alone and I wouldn't be able to help them any more"

"When I was eight years old I'd told myself, 'I want to help other young orphans so they do not have to experience what I was experiencing.' I thought, 'If I get married, am I achieving that or not?' And it was clear that was not the way to go. I didn't go to meet the guy and my relative told me, 'I tried to help you, you turned that down and from now on you're pretty much on your own"

"My grandmother was so knowledgeable that even when she couldn't see any more she could smell which mushrooms were edible, inedible, poisonous … But to grow them was very strange"

"You realise that if you can work, you can actually get there step by step, you can put food on your plate"

"In this case it was converting waste into food, creating food for the community, but also doing something that no one else in that community was doing. We were unique in that time, doing something that was highly scientific without having studied at all. In my case I'd only done five years of primary-level education. It was like magic"

"One of my biggest dreams, of course, never having met my father, was to actually have a father"

"I don't think I would be doing what I'm doing now in Zimbabwe if I didn't believe there is a possibility for a change"

"I learned to redefine myself regardless of what happened to me when I was a kid"

"I've been able to reclaim myself. This is something that's required for every individual. We are not what happened to us"

"From those experiences there's some kind of lesson that inspires me to do what I do now, but I'm not back in the moment when I was 10. I've dealt with that. I just look at the future with a new hope. I'm 100% sure that I am not going to be one of those women who say, 'Things are the way they are because I grew up as an orphan"

"Orphaned at the age of seven, Chido Govera escaped a life of poverty and abuse in rural Zimbabwe. Now she's an activist, travelling the world to help others change their lives"