My husband’s family paid a dowry of goats and money. I didn’t know this man before I married him and it never felt good because it was a forced marriage. I wasn’t happy but I had no choice, my parents made me.
I was 16 when I had my first baby and now I have seven children. There was a great deal of violence in my marriage and eventually, my husband left. He does not support our children so now I have to struggle. I try to manage, but I have problems getting enough food to feed everyone. Sometimes I don’t have enough to pay for school fees or other essentials.
It’s a good idea that my daughter has been given a goat. It helps us to keep her in school. We can breed it to have one kid a year that we can sell for 80,000 shillings (around US$21). We can use the money to pay for school fees and scholastic materials.
Most women in our community have not gone to school, are sidelined and they don’t get the help they require. I want my daughters to go to school because I want them to achieve what I did not.
Narrative and image provided by Equality Now
