For Sharon, studying Individual Support became a way to turn a deeply personal promise into purpose. Inspired by the experiences of people she loved, she set out to gain the skills to support older people and people with disability with compassion, dignity and care.

My name is Sharon Ziwacha and I’m originally from Zimbabwe. I’m from a family of three—the second one in my family. I was raised by my mother, who is a farmer, and my father, who is a tradesman.

We came to Australia for better opportunities in life and maybe get a better education for our kids, my husband and I. It all started when I was young—I wanted to become a nurse back then but I didn’t get the chance when I was in my country, I didn’t get the chance of becoming a nurse.

What motivated me most to come and to enrol with Community College doing the Individual Support in Ageing and Disability was I had my uncle—he got infected with HIV and Aids around 2018.

By the time he was at home we were able to care for him but later when he was admitted to the hospital, I think he had a fall …so the nurses, they didn’t notice that he had a fall. Later on when we went for a visit we noticed that he had a fall and just after that fall I think he just lived for about two or three days, then he passed away.

It’s something that touched me, like …if we had people who could go into careers with passion, maybe he was not going to pass away. So, it has motivated me …I promised my uncle even though he was no longer there, I think I want to do a job that I have to help people who are unable, people who can’t do things on their own, so that’s why I decided that I would just …I would do this job with passion ...like, I have to help the elderly …I have to help the disabled. Not that they are disabled but they are abled in a different way so we just have to support them.

So that is it—my uncle is number one and then, I have a sister who has a disabled child. I have seen him suffer and by that time, I didn’t know anything like, how can I help him, because I didn’t have the knowledge that I have now. So now, I can just put it into practice on other people but just … in mind, with my sister’s child.

I would recommend to study with Community College because for me, it was, at first I thought it was going to be hard, that going into a new community because I was just coming from Zimbabwe, enrolling into a school, enrolling into Community College. But later it was easy, up till now, especially with my trainer Donna. She made it easy for me. Like the whole course she made it easy. She motivated us. Sometimes if you feel like you want to give up, you just think of her, like the effort she puts in us, you just get motivated like that.