By Patience Gondo
In 2023 Nyasha Mushayi was preparing to write her O-Level examinations when her life took an unexpected turn. Her vision began to fade, slowly at first then completely.
By the time her classmates sat in examination rooms, Nyasha was coming to terms with a devastating reality .she had lost her sight.
“I was supposed to be writing my O levels,” she said. “Instead, I was learning how to sit in the dark.”
What followed was not only blindness, but isolation. While her peers advanced to A Level Nyasha remained at home watching her future feel further and further away.
Days became long and heavy filled with silence and unanswered questions.
“I felt left behind,” she recalls. “Everyone was moving forward, and I was just stuck.”
The loss pushed her into depression. The dreams she once held seemed unreachable and anger replaced hope.
“I was angry at life. Angry at God,” Nyasha admits. “I felt punished. I felt cursed.”
For months, she struggled to accept a world she could no longer see. But in mid 2025, she made a decision that would change the course of her life she enrolled at Kopota School for the Blind in Zimuto, Masvingo.
“Arriving at Kopota was frightening. Everything was unfamiliar, and learning Braille felt overwhelming “.
“It was very hard,” she said.
“My fingers didn’t understand it. I felt broken all over again.”
Yet, slowly, persistence replaced fear. With time patience and support, Nyasha began to adapt.
Each lesson restored a piece of her confidence. The girl who once doubted her worth began to rediscover her strength.
“I realised I wasn’t broken,” she said. “I was just learning in a different way.”
Today Nyasha is doing well in school. She reads using Braille, moves with confidence and speaks about her journey with clarity and courage. The pain that once defined her has softened into determination.
Nyasha’s story is not a tale of tragedy, but of transformation. Though her life did not follow the path she expected, it did not end.
In losing her sight she found resilience and the strength to begin again.