How girl escaped forced marriage

Kisarawe. She had a dream of becoming a teacher when she joined Form One in Mbarali District, Mbeya Region, three years ago.

Little did Ritha Kalowa (not her real name) know that she could serve a man as wife even before crossing to Form Two.

Ritha, aged 16 by then, was living with her mother and brother in Mbarali. Her father was residing with another wife in Mkuranga District, Coast Region, after divorcing with her mother.

Few months after joining secondary school in 2012, her father went to Mbarali with a motive of taking up responsibility by raising his daughter and giving her quality education.

He asked his co-parent that he wanted to transfer his daughter to another school in Mkuranga. Ritha’s mother agreed.

He then made every procedure to enable Ritha to shift from her  school in Mbarali to Mkuranga, something which he succeeded.

While still in Mbarali, her father introduced a man to her, saying he was her brother who could accompany her to Mkuranga.

On the next day, the man picked Ritha to a bus stand and started the journey to Mkuranga.

“On arriving at Gwaza Ward in Mkuranga, the man took me to his house. We were sleeping in the same room.

“My relative told me that my father had received 150 cows as dowry from the man for marrying me. I was very upset,” she says in interview with the The Citizen in Kisarawe District, Coast Region.

“I stayed with that man for two months. I was always crying because I didn’t like to get married at an early age.”

Struggling to escape from the man, Ritha went to Gwaza Ward executive officer (Weo) and asked for a help.

The Weo helped by giving her a bus fare and referred her to Ms Veronica Kilango, a good Samaritan in Kisarawe District.

Ms Kilango now takes good care of her and has sent her to school to resume her studies.

“I have heard from my relatives that the 150 cows paid as dowry have been returned to the man,” she says.

Ms Kilango describes Ritha as a decent child and very cooperative with her colleagues at home and school.  “She is doing well in her studies. Her examination results are good,” she notes.

With the support of Plan International Tanzania, Ritha is currently in Form Three at Chanziga Secondary School located in Kisarawe.

The organisation’s support is part of an ongoing project in the area meant to strengthen child protection, dubbed ‘Violence Against Children’ (VAC) project.

Kisarawe VAC project coordinator, Ms Neema Daniel said the project is meant to improve systems of reporting cases of child abuse, speeding up their hearing in courts and raising awareness over the matter.

The project also runs in Kibaha District in the same region.

Since the project started the number of child abuse cases has shot up from 10 between July 2013 and June 2014 to 59 between July 2014 and June this year.

Head of police criminal investigations in the district, Mr Juma Kanena, attributes the rise of the number of reported cases to the VAC project.

The two-year initiative, which started early last year and expected to end in December this year, is being implemented by Plan International.

She says before the project, people were not reporting such cases to the police, instead, they were resolving them at home.

The number of child rape cases is leading in a list of child abuse cases reported to the police in the district for the past eight months.

Records show that out of 37 cases on child abuse reported for the past eight months, 14 of them were about rape involving girls.

Mr Kanena says out of the 37 cases, 12 cases were filed in courts.

Out of the 12 cases, suspects were found guilty in the three of them while three others  were dismissed due to lack of evidence. The remaining six are still in courts, he says.

Ms Anna Chaka, police officer in charge of gender and children desk at the Kisarawe District office, says poor awareness among members of the community deny them evidence to support the cases.

“You may find that parents unknowingly remove evidence from their raped children by making them have showers before reporting to the police,” she says.

She notes that in Kisarawe District many children are exposed to the risk of being sexually abused during traditional dances which usually take place at night for three consecutive days or more.

Most of the residents of Kisarawe District are Zaramo.

District Social Welfare officer, Ms Mwandili Rangi, says the major reason for child abuse in the district is divorce whereby many children are taken care of by their grandmothers and grandfathers who cannot give them proper care, particularly guiding them in their academic development.

“Though we don’t have records, the divorce rate is very high in the district which leads many children into risky environments,” she says.

A Form Four student at Bundikani Secondary School, Judith Gaspar, also shared her experience over her friend, who is in Form Three at another school, that she was raped by her uncle.

“She told me that her uncle normally sneaks into her room when her aunt is absent, and rapes her,” she says, adding:

“When you look at her you may discover that she is psychologically affected.”

However, Judith says her friend told her that sad story on condition that she should not tell anyone else.