GEORGE NEWS - Hope. That is the word that best describes Tracy Tichivangani, the sales manager for a hospitality management company operating in the Garden Route. But behind this seemingly humdrum life lies a story of reaching for dreams, overcoming enormous obstacles and inspiring others.

Besides working as a sales manager, she volunteers as a healthcare assistant at an old age home, hosts tea parties to talk about women empowerment and does volunteer work as the Miss Pearl Ambassador 2024.

Growing up impoverished in rural Zimbabwe, Tracy - like many other young girls - did not have opportunities to improve her circumstances.

As a schoolgirl she paid her own tuition by doing seasonal work on farms. Sometimes no work meant no school for a whole year, but despite taking longer she persisted and finished matric.

"I didn't believe anyone could change my life except myself. Watching television inspired me and made me aware that there was more to life," says Tracy.

After school she moved to Botswana where she did part-time jobs like cleaning yards and houses and au pairing. "

At times my arms would be black from washing clothes because there was no washing machine," she says. In the evenings she took computer lessons to empower herself.

In 2010 she moved to George to live with family and worked as a supermarket security guard in Oudtshoorn while continuing with computer lessons during lunch breaks. 

In 2013, thanks to the computer lessons, she got her first job in hospitality as a receptionist.

Her drive and work ethic propelled her upwards in the industry and to date she has managed tourism properties in George, Sedgefield, Wilderness, Knysna and Mossel Bay.

Her dream is to open an orphanage to help children who had a tough upbringing like she did. "I grew up as good as an orphan. 

My mother couldn't really show me love and my stepfather physically abused me," says Tracy, who already owns some land where she is planning developments.

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