Fatuma

This is Fatuma. She is 25 years old and has two daughters. 

She grew up in Moshi, about an hour away from Arusha with 2 brothers and one sister. When she was little her mother left to go bury her mother in Arusha for two months and when she returned she found her husband (Fatuma’s father) married to another women. So her mother returned to Arusha with her and her younger brother leaving her older sister and brother in Moshi. When she was 5 she went back to her father in Moshi. She went to school in Moshi but never did well because her stepmother didn’t allow her to study and did not help her. She was mistreated by her stepmother who never had her own children. The father was never around to help her. She was only fed when she worked around the house and farm. After primary school (7th grade), which she did not pass, she started training in sewing but she  always arrived late and her step mother  caused problems so she wasn't allowed to continue at the school. She felt her only option was to find a man and so when she had the opportunity to marry her sister’s brother in law she grabbed it. She was 17 years old and he was 25. They were always fighting because he was drunk. She went back to her stepmother but was mistreated and abused there. So then she went back to the husband and suffered whatever treatment he gave her because she had nowhere else to go. She did odd jobs like carrying water and washing clothes for money to feed her baby. Then she had her second daughter and when her youngest was 2 years old her husband came home and gave her money to buy food she bought the food. But the husband came home drunk and wanted the money back and when she didn’t have it he beat her and stabbed her. She ran off to another region of Tanzania to work as a house girl. One daughter went to her mother’s house and the other daughter went to live with the father’s mother.

This is the story as Fatuma told me one raining day as we sat in the workshop. Tears streaming down her face she tells me this story of fear and hopelessness. From what I can see she never had a chance, no one ever loved her or cared about her future. She was never encouraged to do well at school or to even go to school. I can't even relate. My heart to broken. How can I help someone like this? Someone who thinks that they are

worth nothing because that is all they have ever been told. So much abuse and neglect can break a person.

But Fatuma has hope! She's excited about learning skills that will guarantee her a job and a hope for a better future for her and her daughters. At Shining a Light she is also learning how to be a mother. For so many years her family has been scattered and she is now pulling them back together. It's wonderful to see her grow and transform into a woman that will create, inspire and empower!