Imagine just after graduating then the world gets hit by a deadly pandemic? The COVID-19 outbreak totally brought me fear, the kind of fear you can taste in the mouth and terror which tends to blind you. Zambia, like many other countries, has not been spared from the economic downfall and job losses. We were already struggling as a developing country with bad governance then came COVID-19.

My family felt the direct impact just in the first wave of the pandemic. In April 2020, I saw my parents being laid off from the copper mines they had worked at for many years, which devastated the family. As if that was not enough when the lockdown was announced so many friends and family were consumed by COVID-19 due to a lack of awareness about the seriousness of the pandemic. Many people in the country never really knew how serious it was, not until many lives were lost. Others may say the government is to blame for not sensitizing the people but I would say it’s poverty that made people not adhere to the lockdown rules and curfews put up by the government.

In August 2020, I graduated as a computer engineer with so many anxieties and responsibilities as the family was financially strained, to my surprise I was able to land myself a full-time job as a software developer working from home, I also landed two other part-time jobs the same month. I am forever grateful for being blessed with a little light in the darkness and it taught me to always be positive in these trying moments.