Mariama was abandoned by her father when she was little, along with her seven brothers and sisters.
One hot summer afternoon, Mariama followed her girlfriends down the street to a small house she cleaned. Her friends got bored with the job and left the house with the homeowner while Mariama finished the work. In one of the rooms a young man of thirty was waiting. At the age of thirteen, Mariama was naively unaware of the danger lurking in the house. He approached, gagged, and attacked her. She tried to defend herself, to cry for help, but how can a young girl possibly defend herself against a man without law or scruple? She was sexually assaulted that day and still bears the scars of it on her face, screams of pain lingering in her eyes.
We must to be strong for her sake; we must protect as many girls as we can from such atrocious deeds through education and an opportunity to come to school and learn! It is imperative that we save them from the streets and return to them their dignity and a measure of Hope.
Once her pregnancy had been confirmed, Mariama was thrown out of the house by her mother, who refused to be “humiliated” by her condition. She had taken Mariama to the police station after the attack but by the time the police arrived back on the scene the man was gone and no one has seen him since. Kicked out by her own mother, Mariama went to stay with an aunt in Zinder, who provided her with a very skimpy supply of food and water. Her pregnancy was difficult and Mariama was in a state of shock. Complications near the end of her pregnancy made an emergency C-section necessary, which ultimately saved both her and her baby, but during the procedure, the fourteen year old girl went into violent convulsions and epileptic crisis, doctors said. Mariama gave birth to a tiny baby girl, sweetly named Habiba!
The sisters were told of her plight and asked me to help her by enrolling her in school and thus provide the means to a better future for both mother and child. Mariama is challenged by motherhood. It’s not that she doesn’t love her daughter but rather that she doesn’t know how to care for herself, how to give the love and affection she never received as a child. She has been here with us since this spring and we are doing our best to help her overcome and heal from the traumatic experience that can still be seen in her somewhat absent expression, on her expressionless face.
And as if this weren’t enough for her to deal with, we had to move Mariama to another family in Zinder last week while a dormitory for street girls is being built. I had noticed her lack of hygiene and the continuous malnutrition in her little Habiba, but had chalked it up to a time of adaptation to the school.
Fortunately, one morning Mariama told a school nanny that she had decided to “go out into the bush to die”. Once alerted, we reacted swiftly to her cry of despair and after more careful examination realized that Mariama was being poorly treated at her aunt’s house, who was not giving either Mariama or her daughter any food in the evenings and on weekends. She had to work hard early in the morning and was forced to do the housework in the two unsanitary huts that we had renovated when we fixed cracks in the wood and tin roof. Lice were thick in her and her baby’s hair, and her bed linens were in a pathetically dirty state. We had to shave both heads in order to avoid an epidemic at school.
A few days ago, after difficult discussions with an aunt who was clearly of bad faith, Mariama and Habiba were able to leave their miserable quarters and move in with a kind host family. They now live in decent conditions where they are loved and respected! School is just three minutes away, and three of our educators live next door to the host family so they can stop by from time to time to say hello and make sure everything is alright.
Mariama is beginning to look a little better; her expression is less tormented and it warms my heart to see her more relaxed and confident. We bought a small mattress for her, two mats, one blanket, a small pot for her baby and, most importantly, mosquito netting that will protect her from malaria. We have just received a fantastic package from a Swiss company: 50 mosquito nets for the school girls! What a lucky coincidence! They arrived at just the right time and will be such a help to us!
One of our educators told me, rather shyly, that both Mariama and Habiba are without undergarments and have no means with which to buy any. I had a small stash of cotton clothing at home and was able to provide her with the things she needed to reclaim her dignity and finally feel clean and pretty.
