Day Four Under a Tin Roof!

Happy sharing her story!

After spending a few days getting to know this close, beautiful family one thing is clear, Monika is not the average single mother. She has so much help and support from her three oldest children, Happy, Rosemary and Jennifer.  In Tanzania girls take on responsibility at a very young age. They begin helping with the housework around 8 or 9 years old and sometimes even younger. Their chances of education depend on the financial situation of the family and many never pass Primary School (7th grade). They know there is no money for them to continue school and their load of work at home often becomes too much to study and do well at school. Their future is finding a husband and having children. This is not the case with Monika's children. Monika has struggled to keep her girls in school. Although they are a huge help around the house they still study hard and hope for an opportunity at College.

I spoke with Happy to hear her story. Happy, the oldest is waiting to go to College. At 18 years old she has not only finished Secondary School but she has passed her exams. This is rare for a girl in her situation. The problem is there is no money to send her. Even though Monika has worked hard learning the skill of beading and sewing she doesn't make enough to send Happy for the 2 and a half years it's required to get her degree which is only $2,000. And so Happy waits. She is waiting for a miracle. Maybe help from another family member or the off chance her mother will find enough money so she can go. Most likely Happy will have to find another way to make her way in the world. My fear is that she will see that finding a man and having a baby is her only option and settle for that. A young girl sees marriage as a chance to change her status in this culture. Right now she is nothing, or so she feels. With no husband and no children and being a girl she is as low on the social scale as she can be in the eyes of her community.

This story is so common. When I mee
t and interview the women that come into our program I often hear how they thought marrying a man and having his child would make their life have meaning, that they would be something, if only a mother and a wife. Most of these women are left abandoned with out any way to support their child. The husband leaves or wanders coming in and out of their lives. This story is so common and so sad and yet at Shining a Light we are breaking that cycle. We are providing opportunities for women to support their families and change their future.

Happy has hope right now. A hope of making something better then her mother had and someday supporting her younger sisters to attend school. We will continue to search for a path that her mother can afford and a path that can further her younger siblings in life. She has two more sisters that are doing awesome in school and will one day need to decide where and how they will spend their future. Happy wishes to be a role model and Shining a Light is determined to assist her in making a way and changing the fate that so many of the Tanzanian women face.