My parents died when I was just so young. My grandmother took me and we lived in abject poverty and that pushed her to start brewing one traditional liquor called in our native language ‘Kachasu’. Under the pressure of the level of poverty we faced, I was influenced to start heavily abusing drugs from as young as 8 years old. And that negatively impacted me, in that I stopped paying attention at school. I was so carried away by drinking that I no longer had time for school. Through the same influence I decided to stop school. This also affected my health and my relationship with my family. But to the glory of God, I am now 3 years + since I completely stopped, and am a strong Christian and a COACH for GROW Strong and GROW Free. My family and community praise God at the woman I have now become. I am now helping a lot of other people through sharing my testimony and training others in GROW Free and GROW Strong.
(Rosemary has now helped lead 40 GROW Free groups and 20 GROW Strong groups.)

I am a GROW FREE leader in Pembe, Zambia. Before I became a leader, I was heavily abusing alcohol and drugs. I was unable to provide for my family. My children stopped going to school. I was violent. My community never respected me which caused my wife and my children to be in shame. After GROW FREE was introduced to me, I started attending weekly. I started seeing clearly how alcohol had disturbed my life. The testimonies which were shared and the Bible stories helped me to realize how I was affected with alcohol. I am now 2 years seven months since I stopped taking alcohol and drugs. It’s like a dream to my community. I thank God for liberating me. I am now able to do my responsibilities as a father and a husband. There is peace in my home. I became interested in helping others. Currently I am leading 22 groups within Southern Province with the team.