In a country where people who have made mistakes are often cast aside, and where emotional pain is rarely spoken about openly, one man is working to change that Zwelani Ndebele, the founder of Aid Transform Zimbabwe, may not be a widely known figure, but the impact of his work is reaching far and wide into prison cells, along dusty rural roads, and inside packed school classrooms His journey is one shaped by loss, time in prison, and eventually, personal transformation Rather than letting his past define him, Zwelani Ndebele has chosen to use it as a platform for something greater
Through his organisation, he has helped others face their own trauma, find healing, and take steps toward rebuilding their lives His work reminds us that redemption is possible, that brokenness does not mean the end, and that sometimes, the most powerful change comes from those who have walked through darkness themselves Zwelani’s story begins not with crime, but with loss In the early 2000s, the death of his 16 month-old sister shattered the fragile fabric of his childhood
His family splintered under the weight of grief, with his mother relocating to Figtree, leaving a 13 year-old Zwelani to care for his younger siblings, aged 10 and seven “The pain fractured our family,” he recounts “I was left to parent my siblings while still trying to understand my own pain It was too much for a child.”
Without emotional support or adult guidance, loneliness and depression seeped in, leading him to internalise a sense of abandonment
Questions that no child should have to carry haunted him: “Why did they leave us?” “Did they neglect us because we weren’t good enough?” “Why me, at just 13?”
What began as grief soon evolved into emotional paralysis, leaving him desperate for validation In a misguided attempt to claim his place among adult relatives who drank too much, Zwelani began experimenting with alcohol What began as a bid for acceptance spiraled into addiction Alcohol offered the illusion of belonging and a numbing agent to his internal storms.
Source: The Standard Zimbabwe
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