Healing is possible: the story of Fungai Saunyama

I carried shame that was never mine to carry.

As an adult, I also faced inheritance disputes after my husband died in a car accident. When I sought assistance, I encountered discrimination and misinformation. I was told that property acquired during our marriage belonged to my husband's family. At the time, I did not know the laws that protected my rights. For many years, I received no support. I felt isolated, afraid and uncertain about my future.

The greatest barriers were stigma and not knowing where to begin seeking help. I was slowly becoming someone I did not recognise.

Finding the courage to seek support

The turning point came when I realised I could no longer continue living under the weight of fear and silence.

Around that time, FACT, a Tearfund partner, was implementing a Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse project in my community. Through the project, I was invited to participate in Journey to Healing sessions. Those sessions became the first safe space where I could begin processing my experiences. For the first time, someone told me, ‘What happened to you was not your fault.’

I believed it. That simple message changed everything.

The journey towards healing

Journey to Healing did much more than provide psychosocial support tools. It gave me a community. It gave me a family. It gave me friends I could rely on.

The programme helped me process grief that I did not even realise I was carrying. It helped me acknowledge my pain, confront my anger, and begin understanding my trauma.

Healing was not easy. It did not erase what happened to me. Instead, it helped me move from surviving to truly living. My healing journey included finding safety, processing grief and loss, working through anger towards those who failed to protect me, rebuilding confidence and self-worth, learning to set healthy boundaries, learning to trust myself again, replacing guilt and shame with joy and hope.

My confidence returned slowly, piece by piece. Trauma had taught me that the world was unsafe. Healing taught me that I could create safety for myself.

Today, I am no longer defined by what happened to me.

I am a woman, I am a mother, I am a neighbour. I am someone who loves again.

Transformation and empowerment

Before my healing journey, I was unsure whether I had a future. Today, I have dreams again.

My aspirations are bigger than myself. I want to see families break cycles of abuse so that future generations can grow up in safety. I want to see an end to the culture of silence, of turning a blind eye to abuse.

I draw strength from every step I took towards healing. I draw strength from fellow survivors who shared their stories. I draw strength from my faith. My pastor reminded me that I am loved, valued, and created for a purpose. Through faith, I regained dignity and discovered that God was still present in my life.

I still carry scars, but I also carry proof that life after trauma exists. One of the greatest sources of encouragement for me is seeing other women who once could barely speak above a whisper now standing confidently, speaking out, and participating in income-generating activities such as mushroom production and businesses developing detergents like washing powder and dishwashing liquid as well as petroleum jelly. Some engage in crafts, others sewing and others buying and selling. Their transformation reminds me that abuse does not have the final word.

The role of family, church and community

I did not find much support from my family during my healing journey. However, my pastor provided spiritual support, and my community supported me through peer support groups that were established through the programme. This experience taught me that healing cannot happen in isolation. Families, churches and communities all have a critical role to play. When these three institutions work together, survivors can find safety, support and renewed purpose. When they fail, healing becomes much harder. Too often, families turn a blind eye. Churches provide harmful advice. Communities pretend everything is normal.

Survivors deserve better.

My message to survivors

To every survivor, I want to say: you are not alone. You are not to blame. What happened to you was never your fault. There is life after abuse.

Look at me. I received support, and today I am thriving. Please do not carry shame that belongs to the perpetrator. Reach out for help. Speak to someone you trust. Healing takes time, but healing is possible.

Recommendations to churches

Churches are often the first place survivors turn for help. I encourage church leaders to:

• Believe survivors first;
• Provide counselling and emotional support;
• Stop advising survivors to simply ‘pray about it’ without taking other actions, or return to abusive situations;
• Use scripture to challenge violence and harmful gender norms;
• Publicly condemn abuse from the pulpit;
• Create safe spaces where survivors can disclose experiences without fear of judgement.

Silence within churches gives power to perpetrators. Churches should become places of protection, not places where abuse is hidden.

Recommendations to communities and traditional leaders

I call upon community and traditional leaders to:

• Publicly denounce all forms of violence;
• End the practice of settling criminal abuse cases through compensation such as goats, cattle or money;
• Treat abuse as a crime rather than a family matter;
• Encourage survivors to access formal justice systems;
• Promote community awareness of available services and referral pathways.

We must move from ‘shame on her’ to ‘shame on him’. We must move from silence to accountability.

Recommendations to NGOs and development partners

To organisations supporting survivors:

• Invest in long-term healing and recovery services;
• Expand mobile outreach services to reach survivors in remote areas;
• Strengthen economic empowerment opportunities for survivors;
• Involve traditional and faith leaders as key stakeholders rather than working around them;
• Continue scaling Journey to Healing and similar survivor-centred approaches.

Journey to Healing saves lives. Every survivor deserves access to healing and recovery services.

Recommendations to policymakers and justice actors

To policymakers, police, health workers, and justice institutions:

• Stop revictimising survivors through repeated retelling of traumatic experiences;
• Strengthen survivor-centred reporting and referral systems;
• Increase access to safe houses and witness protection services;
• Reduce delays in the justice system;
• Ensure survivors participate in the development of laws and policies that affect them.

Justice delayed often becomes justice denied. Survivors should not have to fight the system while recovering from trauma.

Looking ahead

My dream is simple. I want a future where survivors do not heal alone. I want women in Nyanga and across Zimbabwe to know where to seek help and where to find safety.

I want families that listen. I want churches with compassionate hearts.

I want communities that speak out against abuse. I want children who grow up knowing they can tell the truth and be believed.

Healing is not a straight line. Even today, I continue choosing joy, peace and hope.

But if I made it, others can too. My story is one of overcoming. Trauma did not get the final word. Healing did. And that is the future worth fighting for.

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*What is GBV?

Gender-based violence (GBV) refers to a wide range of human rights violations, including the sexual abuse of children, rape, domestic violence/intimate partner violence, sexual assault and harassment, trafficking of women and girls, and forced marriage. Gender-based violence affects women and girls disproportionately, but is also experienced by men and boys to a lesser degree.