9JA GIRLS REDEFINED MY STORY
IBIKUNLE OLAITAN – 15 years More than anything, she remembers the excruciating labour. The peeling blue paint of the hospital’s walls. She recalls the deadness of the rotary fan above that ignored the heat of the room. Heat and terror gathered around her. She thought to herself; Is this how I die? “I remember pushing […]
FROM SKEPTICISM TO EMPOWERMENT WITH MATASA MATAN AREWA
HABIBA FULANI- 19 years “My first impression of the program was that it was a complete waste of time,” Habiba, 19, says of the day a voluntary community mobilizer approached her to talk about Matasa Matan Arewa (MMA). She was at home carrying out her daily chores. “I had my child to take care of, […]
MMA LIFE FAMILY AND HEALTH SESSIONS SHAPED MY AGENCY
MAIJIDDA DANAZUMI -19 years Everything passes through the husband. That’s one of the wisdom of being married in her community, Maijidda Danazumi, 19 years old and married with one child knows this unspoken fact. However, timing is everything. One night, as she was serving her husband his favourite meal in the flickering light of the […]
BINTI SHUPAVU SHAPED MY LIFE
ANASTASIA MURUNGU – 18 years It was the dimples on the boy; two craters filled with temptations. At 15, Anastasia fell for Baraka who sent her young life in a whirlwind. “It started innocently enough,” she says. “He’d walk me home after school. Or bring me fruits in school.” Then she started skipping school. “I’d […]
I WANT TO BE RICH
LUDIA OCHIENG -19 years Ludia and Patrick Ochieng live in a modest one-roomed mudhouse in Suna West, Migori County as man and wife. She’s 19, he’s 21. Their son, George Innocent is almost two years old. “I named him Innocent because he is the most polite child ever, never cries, always happy, and could never […]
ITS NOT TOO LATE TO DREAM AGAIN
EMILY AWUOR -19 years We don’t have to own 200 panties to be clean!” Those words blare from a screechy microphone from a facilitator talking to teenage girls gathered in a tent in Suna West, Migori County. It’s graduation day for the Binti Shupavu program where these giddy and hopeful adolescent girls – 25 of […]