Picture her waking up already defeated. Before her feet touched the floor, anxiety sat on her chest, and by mid-morning, depression consumed every thought. She moved through life with her head down, shoulders slumped, and eyes fixed on the ground, carrying the weight of shame. She knew the addiction was destroying her, yet every part of her body craved the next fix. Rumors spread, relationships fractured, and isolation deepened. Loved ones watched helplessly as the vibrant young woman they once knew slowly disappeared. Trapped between the need to stop and the need to use, she was losing a battle she no longer believed she could win.
This was Vanessa Chaza’s reality with drug addiction. Not for a season. Not for a year. For nearly a decade.
“On her worst days, Vanessa Chaza couldn’t leave a room without her mind turning against her. Today, at 26, she leads a community of 70. This is the story of what happened in between.”
“It did not only affect me,” she says, without shame. “It robbed my family and friends of a daughter, a provider, and a support system. A young girl with great potential was lost to the community. What was meant to bring life and support instead brought grief and disappointment.”
Yet there is no trace of that woman in her today. Vanessa speaks with a spark in her eyes and a confidence that fills the room. Her posture is upright, her smile easy, and her energy unmistakable. A neatly pressed outfit sits perfectly on her frame, every detail reflecting dignity, purpose, and self-respect. Looking at her now, it is almost impossible to believe the story she is telling is her own. At just 26, Vanessa wears titles many people spend a lifetime chasing: Dental Coordinator, Business Development Manager in training, Mental Health Advocate, ordained Deacon, and founder of Servant King Bookshop. The transformation is nothing short of radical. Yet none of those titles matter most to her.
“Above everything,” she says, “I am a servant of God.” It is a statement born from survival.
For nearly a decade, addiction stripped away almost every part of her life, her growth, her peace, her relationships, her sense of self, and slowly, even her hope. Though she never completely left the church, the distance between who she was in those pews and who she had become outside them grew impossible to hide over time. She carried dreams, ambition, and a deep love for people, yet addiction kept choking the life out of every good thing she tried to build.
By 2023, she had reached a quiet kind of rock bottom and in that broken place, she prayed and worshiped. Somewhere in the middle of her surrender, something shifted.
“I made the decision to turn my life around,” she says.
When Vanessa joined ZimWorX, she had already walked away from drugs, but her healing was still fragile. Alcohol, old environments, and familiar habits continued pulling her toward the life she was trying to escape. “I realised that if I continued down that path, I would lose all the progress I had made,” she says. At the beginning of 2025, Vanessa made another defining decision, to fully surrender her life to God without compromise. Every lunch break, she walked to the Wellness Office to pray, seek God, and find fellowship in the middle of an ordinary workday. Over time, that daily routine became the foundation of her healing and transformation.
“One of the things I deeply value about ZimWorX is its commitment to wellness, growth, and people-centred development”, she says, “those values aligned with the transformation God was already doing in me.”
The story of Oasis began during a simple lunch break at work when Tinotenda Madume told Vanessa, “The Holy Spirit told me we should pray together.” What started as two colleagues meeting daily to pray, study scripture, fast, and grow in obedience to God soon began drawing others in. Over time, those small gatherings grew into Oasis, an interdenominational Christian community of more than seventy members, united by one mission: “A well of Living Water in a place filled with carnality, choosing to draw from Christ Himself and pour His life into others.” What began quietly between two people eventually became a place of faith, fellowship, and restoration for many others.
For Vanessa, the growth of Oasis reflects her own transformation. Now sober for three years and free from the cravings and relapses that once controlled her life, she says she was transformed “through the grace of God and a heart fully surrendered to Him.” Since then, she has completed the Langham Preaching Programme, been ordained as a Deacon, founded a bookshop, and is training for new things.
Yet she still describes ZimWorX as “fertile ground for growth, purpose, leadership, and restoration.” Remembering friends who are now in prison, rehabilitation, or no longer alive continues to fuel her calling to help others still trapped in darkness.
In Vanessa’s own words, to anyone still fighting,
- Make the decision. Transformation begins with a choice, not perfect circumstances.
- Seek help without shame. Counselling, prayer, and community matter because we were never meant to do life alone.
- Willpower is not enough. Real freedom comes through the Spirit and a deeper walk with God.
- Be honest about your open doors. If you keep falling in the same place, something needs to change.
- Be deliberate. Eventually, you must choose God over the very thing destroying you. That decision changes everything.
There is a version of you the world is waiting to meet. Vanessa Chaza is proof it is never too late for it to arrive.
Vanessa Chaza is a Dental Coordinator at ZimWorX and Business Development Manager in training . She is the founder of Servant King Bookshop and co-founder of the Oasis community.
