In Zimbabwe, Life Choices pregnancy help organization is now two years old after beginning in 2022. The high rate of teen pregnancy there grabbed the attention of pro-life supporters in churches and the community, and they recognized their desire to be a voice for life.
Around this same time, legislation was proposed to allow 12-year-olds to receive contraception. Pro-life supporters in the community rose to the occasion to pray and worked vigorously to oppose the progression of this legislation. They were successful and the proposed legislation was stopped.
Susan Masuka, director of Life Choices Zimbabwe, sat down for the Pregnancy Help Podcast with Ellen Foell, Heartbeat International program specialist, to discuss the pro-life work in Zimbabwe and exactly how Life Choices is meeting the needs of the young women experiencing unplanned pregnancy.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
Looking back at how Life Choices began its ministry, Masuka shared that a sister ministry had been at the forefront of pregnancy help. This ministry connected Masuka in Zimbabwe to Daniele Gradwell, director of Pregnancy Help Network of South Africa. The South Africa network provided the pregnancy help training necessary to prepare Life Choices to provide frontline pregnancy help to those in desperate need in their community in Zimbabwe.
Masuka reflected on her life and ministry experience prior to joining pregnancy help through Life Choices and shared how she was involved in a ministry aimed at evangelism for youth called Youth for Christ.
During her time ministering to youth, Masuka connected with a church to intervene with a young, 19-year-old woman in need. Through the combined efforts of the youth ministry and the church ministry, the young woman was provided support, love, food, and shelter. After the young woman delivered her baby, Masuka remained actively supportive in her life as she knew it was important to ensure the young mother knew how to care for and meet all the needs for her baby.
Masuka explained that it was during this same time that she and others spent the year leading up to the opening of Life Choices in prayer. The group prayed and sought the Lord and He burdened them for the young girls facing teen pregnancy in their community, Masuka said.
She recalled the message the Lord gave her through prayer: “The young girls need the message of hope, truth and to be told their lives are not over. They can have their babies, and the babies are a gift, not a curse or mistake.”
Tweet This: The young girls need the message of hope, truth and to be told their lives are not over. Their babies are a gift, not a curse or mistake.
Masuka knew then it was time. A woman from her church worked alongside her to get Life Choices on the frontlines.
“We have seen God in a mighty way,” Masuka said. “I love what I am doing, and I love seeing the girls and how God transforms them before our eyes.”
The opportunity for the women she serves to grow and her ministry’s reach both face challenges due to the economy.
“The majority of the young women cannot afford to go back to school, and Life Choices is hoping to assist them as this will allow for them to better care for themselves and their babies,” Masuka said. “We are trusting God for them.”
Other challenges Life Choices faces result from being a new ministry and also the fact that churches there are not always comfortable talking about sex.
“They can be guarded and unsure as culturally it is a taboo subject,” said Masuka.
“It is important for us to talk to our children about growth, puberty, and relationships,” she said. “We need a shift where the church realizes our sexuality is a gift from God. It needs to be redeemed. The enemy has taken it and is perverting it. We need to take it back and talk about it with dignity in an age-appropriate way.”
Masuka and Life Choices hope to bring the local church to a place of freedom in recognizing the gift of sex and sexuality as a gift. When young people are given the right information at the right time, they are more likely to make good choices, she said. Life Choices tells young people sex is not a “no” but rather a “at the right time.”
Life Choices reaches women in their community by presenting at schools, Masuka explained, sharing their message and contact information, placing posters, and sharing in the community by saying, “we are here for you.”
As the pregnancy help ministry helps girls it has seen the beautiful outcome of having other girls come to them for assistance after receiving a positive word-of-mouth referral.
The care provided at Life Choices goes beyond the material to be holistic.
“These young women are only able to thrive and succeed as they go forward in life if their identity in Christ is sealed,” Masuka said. “All the challenges they face can only be overcome when they are settled and know God loves them and they are his daughters and live in Him.”
Given this, she pledged to, “Continue to fight for every life as every life has been bought with the precious blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
