From misery to triumph: A story of two young girls

International Day of the Girl Child will be commemorated globally next week, today, Woman explores the current situation facing young women in Tanzania. Globally efforts have been made to ensure a world free of discrimination for young women and girls.

A number of young women’s dreams have been shuttered because of various reasons; these include pregnancy and early marriages. Some have lost hope but many of them have taken a step forward to ensure that their dreams come to reality.

Their progress is believed to be good not only for them, but also for families, communities and society at large.

Woman had an opportunity to talk to two young women who had lost hope but after they were given the chance to start over in creating their careers, they are progressing well.

Irene Halima* is a 17-year-old girl from Kilolo District in Iringa. She is a bubbly teenager and when you meet for the first time, hope and ambition are what can clearly be seen on her radiant face. However, there is more to her life story than meets the eye.

She is a victim of shameful and cruel acts that were meted on her by a gang; she was raped after being drugged by a group of thugs – which consequently led her to motherhood at such a tender age.

Today, she is a mother to a four- month-old baby who is currently being raised by her parents in Iringa while she attends her QT classes, expecting to do her form four examinations this year.

It took months for Halima to agree to tell her story, after long sessions of counseling she finally managed to come to terms with what had happened to her and can bravely share her story.

Her ordeal

Her tribulation started when she came to live in Dar es Salaam. The first born in a family of four was raised by her poor parents who only managed to take her to primary school which she completed and passed in 2012.

However her dream to continue with education was shattered after her parents  told her that they could not afford to take her to secondary school. Hence she was forced to stay at home and help around the house.

Like many young girls who fall victim to empty promises, a friend to her Father who lives in Dare s salaam promised to help her  continue with her education.

“My father’s friend told him that he wanted me to come to Dar es Salaam so that he could help me enroll in a secondary school instead of  just staying in the village doing nothing. I remember how my mother objected to this notion but I was excited to come to town and the fact that I was promised to be taken to school was good enough to convince my parents not to let this opportunity pass,” she bravely explains.

After a long discussion, Halima was allowed to come to Dar es Salaam in April last year with so much hope that she would finally make her dreams come true – without really knowing what awaited her in the big city.

“I came to live with the family of my father’s friend in Tabata Magengeni area, they had two children. The first few days I was treated very well because the father of the house was around but things would turn sour for me whenever he travelled upcountry – this is because his wife mistreated me,” she explains, adding “I became a housemaid and I remember how she would sometimes use a broom stick to beat me with because I took a few minutes to put a pot of water on the charcoal stove, I was forced to sleep in a store and wasn’t given enough food. However she would act differently when her husband returned home.”

Few weeks after she started working, the woman had to travel to Morogoro and therefore she was left alone to look after the house. “She told me she was going to Morogoro and would be back the next day but she did not return the following day,” Halima speaks.

 Sadly two days after her departure, a group of gangsters invaded the house at night at around 8pm. “I was alone and the house had no security guard,” she recalls. The thugs claimed to have come to collect a debt the owner of the house owed them.

“I told them my boss was not around, I asked them to come another time but they refused. They threatened me and took some house valuables before leaving,” she points. With no means of communicating to the rest of the family members, Halima was left in agony and at a loss of what to do following the intrusion.

Being new in the city and the house, Halima didn’t tell anyone about what had happened, but this would prove to be her undoing as the burglars visited the house again the next day at around 9pm. “This time around I don’t know what they did but all I could remember is they covered me with a white peace of cloth on my nose and the rest is blank. After a while I woke up, I found myself alone on the floor and  I realised something was not right, they had raped me,” she sadly speaks.

Upon her boss’s return, Halima explained all that had happened but this did little to earn her sympathy from her boss. “She was furious about the valuables that were stolen. She went on to assault me by beating me and pouring water on me. At this moment I wanted to go back home to my family,” Halima speaks. 

Facing the streets

After months of torture from her boss who is a nurse at one of the public hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Halima left the house. Being a stranger in the city, she had nowhere to go and nothing to eat. She started living on the streets, picking food that is left over by people  and  spending her nights in an old abandoned building in Barakuda, Tabata.

“I would walk around the neighbourhood asking if they needed a housemaid. I told them I wanted to work so that I could get money to buy a ticket to go back home. Luckily on the third day I met someone who changed my life for the better,” Halima speaks of the woman who rescued her from her unending ordeal. “I call the woman ‘mother’ now for after she saw me and heard my story she agreed to take me with her. She called my father and told him about what had happened to me and she asked if she could take me with her because she has an organisation which helps girls like me,” Halima notes.

Halima started her new life, she was enrolled in QT classes but she was holding on to a secret which she felt would mark the beginning of the end for her if it ever got out. “I didn’t want anyone to know I was pregnant,” she reveals. However the secret eventually came out and on April this year she gave birth to a baby girl. In order to balance between personal duties and education, Halima was advised to breast feed her child for three months so that she could continue with her studies while the child was at her grandmother’s. Halima now continues with her studies and hopes that she will be able to fulfill her ambition of becoming a journalist in the future. “Hope of a better future has been revived, just as my guardian believed in me, I will work hard to achieve all my goals in life,” states Halima.

Alarming situation for girls

The community is becoming an even more dangerous place for young girls, especially those living in rural areas. Due to hard financial times, young girls are lured to get involved in things that in the end are detrimental to them.

They are forced in to prostitution, forced labour and even drug trafficking. The Ministry of Education states that more girls need to be enrolled in schools so as to reduce on the rate of illegal practices such as child marriage and forced labour. Halima being a victim of injustice against young girls echoes a plea for society to value young girls. “We need to be valued and afforded an opportunity to acquire an education. For those who’ve gone through similar or different ordeal from mine, I urge you not to give up. You still have a chance to turn your life around. You can still dream big,” she encourages, adding, “parents need to be very careful when people pretending to be well-wishers show an interest in their children. Do not just let your daughter or son leave with anyone who shows an intention of helping them in whichever way intimated.”

Fifteen-year-old Annabel Mushi* is another teenage mother whose life has changed for the better. Born and raised in Kilosa, Morogoro, Mushi is also a victim of empty promises that were given to her by a woman who promised her grandmother that she would see her through school.

Upon arriving in Dar es Salaam at just the age of six, she was told her job would be to raise a child of her boss. “She completely dismissed the idea of me going to school and whenever I raised the issue I ended up being punished. At that time I was capable of playing with the child but working as a maid was hard because of my age,” she explains.

She stayed with her boss until when she was 12 years old before being lured by a man who lived close by their house. “I was young and often mistreated. This guy who was our neighbour saw how my life was and offered to help. He told me I could use his place as he was always on transit, he was a truck driver travelling in neighboring countries and it took him days to return. I felt safe but this all changed a few months later when he told me that he could no longer take care of me for free. This led to my pregnancy at the age of 12,” she recounts. 

Mushi, whose child is 4-year-old never knew what a class looks like, but now is in standard 5 after attending MEMKWA program in 2014.

“I am happy I now go to school. I can read and write, I now don’t feel left out by the rest of the world. I don’t feel discriminated against at all. I see myself becoming a lawyer in the near future because nothing can stop me now. I will have an opportunity to use the law to ensure that girls’ rights are observed.

And as young woman, I believe we can be whatever we want to be so long as we are given chances, the important thing is to trust ourselves,” she speaks.

Mushi and Halima are among girls who are under the care of New Hope for Girls foundation, an organisation which assists girls who live in difficult environments.

*Not real name

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