Harare — ONE Elaine Maxwell once said: "My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny."

Maxwell probably had a rural Zimbabwean woman Tererai Mafukidze Trent (40) in mind when she penned these words.

Just like Maxwell had prescribed, Mafukidze Trent, who was forced into marriage at 11 because her sex made her a liability in her family, was recently featured on American television talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show in celebration of her achievements.

She took her first step of proving to the world that anything is possible when she wrote down all her dreams and aspirations on a small piece of paper she placed in a tin she buried in the ground about 18 years ago.

Like seed that had been sown into the fertile Zimbabwean soil, each dream "germinated" one by one and Tererai, the family liability, is now a holder of an MSc in Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education, Oklahoma State University, and Diploma in Horticulture, Harare Polytechnic, Zimbabwe.

She put the icing on the cake when she obtained an Interdisciplinary PhD in Evaluation late last year.

Her inspirational story is proof that it is possible for women to break the shackles of forced marriages and rebuild lives if given the opportunity.

Tererai is also living testimony that behind every successful woman stands tall her aspirations, dreams, determination and hard work.

Looking at Tererai now, no one could have guessed that she went through a difficult childhood.

Spotting dreadlocks and wearing an outfit that blended well with her ethnic look, Tererai could not stop smiling during the entire interview.

The segment she appeared on was part of a broadcast featuring authors Nicholas Kristof and Shryl WuDunn, and their new book "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide".

As a young girl in rural Zimbabwe, long before rural electrification was introduced, Tererai lived without running water and electricity and had no hope for her future.

She told Oprah that she did not get much formal education, partly because she was a girl and was expected to do household chores.

She also had the task of herding cattle and was groomed for motherhood by looking after her younger siblings.

Those were the days when most families did not want to invest in the education of the girl child who would marry and take up her husband's name.

Consequently, most families saw it wiser to send boys to school and just prepare girls for motherhood. Others from the apostolic faith sects still marry off girls at a tender age because of religious beliefs.

"I remember very well my father pointing to my brothers and the other boys in the village and saying: "These are the breadwinners of tomorrow.

"We need to educate them. We need to send them to school. The girls will get married.

"And that was just a painful experience for me," Tererai told Oprah.

Desperate to learn, this little girl with big dreams secretly wrote her brother Tinashe's homework. She said she was very close to her brother, who is now late.

"I learnt to read and write from my brother's books," she revealed.

Soon, Tererai's secret was exposed, and the teacher begged her father to let her learn. However, the bubble burst as Tererai attended only two terms before she was forced to marry at the tender age of 11.

At 18, Tererai was the mother of three and this did not stop her from reading and neither did this erase her dreams from her memories.

The marriage was not all rosy as her husband barred her from attending school, resented her literacy and allegedly beat her whenever she practised reading by looking at a scrap of an old newspaper.

"When my husband realised that I wanted to have an education, he would beat me.

"If you are a woman and you are not educated what else can you do?

"I sometimes have nightmares of that time of my life," she told Oprah.

But what Tererai did not know while struggling in her marriage is that fate already had chosen her a path with thorns at the beginning and roses at the end.

It was just a matter of time before the thorns that lay in the path would disappear leaving room for roses to blossom laying a petal carpet for her to walk on and shine.

The first rose blossomed in 1991, when a visitor, Jo Luck from Heifer International, an organisation that gives cows, goats and chickens to farmers in poor communities changed Tererai's life forever.

Soon after assuming the presidency of Heifer in 1992, the activist Jo Luck travelled to Zimbabwe, where one day she found herself sitting on the ground with a group of young women. One of them was Tererai.

Jo Luck asked every woman about her greatest dream -- something many of them did not know they were allowed to have.

"I remember very clearly saying my name is Tererai, and I want to go to America to have an education, and I want to have a BSc degree.

"I want to have a masters, and I want to have a PhD," she further told Oprah.

Said Tererai: "And she (Jo Luck) just looked at me [and said], 'If you desire those things, it is achievable'."

Jo Luck kept saying that they could achieve their goals repeatedly using the word "achievable".

The women caught the repetition and asked the interpreter to explain in detail what "achievable" meant.

On learning that "achievable" meant that her dreams were attainable, realisable, possible, reachable, doable, feasible, viable and realistic, there was no stopping for Tererai.

Her mother, who was present when Tererai and other women met Jo Luck, was her pillar of strength and supported her through her journey.

Hoping her daughter could break the cycle of poverty, Tererai's mother encouraged her to write her dreams on a piece of paper.

The 20-year-old placed them in a tin and buried them under a rock in the pasture where she used to herd cattle.

"As a woman without an education, life will continue to be a burden," she read out what she had written on the paper to Oprah and audiences.

"I truly believe in these dreams, and I hope one day to work for the causes of women and girls in poverty," she added.

Tererai not only broke the cycle -- she shattered it.

In 1998, Tererai moved to Oklahoma with her husband who had married her at 11 and they now had five children.

Just three years later, she earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural education.

In 2003 -- the same year her husband was deported for abuse -- Tererai obtained her master's degree. Despite living under the bright lights of Oklahoma, Tererai did not forget her roots and the reason she had buried the small tin with the paper carrying her dreams. After every achievement, Tererai returned home to Zimbabwe, unearthed her tin of dreams and checked off each goal she accomplished, one by one.

In December 2009, Tererai who is now happily remarried to Trent, realised her greatest dream of all -- a doctoral degree. Tererai is a symbol of hope in her village. On a trip home in 2009, Tererai and her mother encouraged a new generation of girls to dream, giving them pens, paper and tiny metal tins.

She asked the girls to write their dreams one by one, just like she had done.

One of the little girls said her dream is to become an air hostess.

Many other little girls wrote their dreams one by one and buried them in the same manner Tererai had done hers hoping one day they would be like her.

"It makes me feel happy, but at the same time, it makes me feel empty that there are more women who could have the same opportunity but they are not getting it," she told Oprah.

"My story is not about me, but it's about what can come out of my story."

Part of the work Tererai has done includes accompanying and monitoring course participants from the University of Zambia to conduct evaluation research.

She also worked as a baseline survey consultant, for the Tropical Biology and Fertility Programme (Nairobi, Kenya).

Tererai also worked as an evaluation consultant, Natural Resource Institute (NRI), UK, University of Greenwich.

She conducted an evaluation (using PRA) on environmental, social and economic issues pertaining to Zimbabwe.

So determined was Tererai that she rose to become an evaluation team supervisor for the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe/GTZ District Social Forestry and Participatory Rapid Appraisal District Co-ordinator.

She became responsible for developing PRA tools and village report writing for five villages.

She also practised as a PRA consultant, Action AID/Zimbabwe Aids Network when she provided PRA training to 60 health workers in Matabeleland and Mashonaland, Zimbabwe.

With such previously oppressed women like Tererai standing out and using every opportunity they get to obtain an education, the country will move in the right direction as it ensures that by 2015 all Zimbabwean children -- boys and girls alike -- will be able to complete a full programme of primary education.

Additional information Oprah.com and New York Times