Rescued from child marriage at 11; a GBV survivor's story

It is Wednesday midmorning in the Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. The rain has just stopped falling a few minutes ago after a nightlong pour. It's wet and cold everywhere. 

A murram road leads us to a rescue shelter; it is muddy and slippery, and we have to take the risk of driving through water-filled potholes.

We reach the centre, which we will not name to protect more than 60 girls it houses. Here, we meet Wakili*, a Kiswahili name I conveniently give her, given her dream profession. She is in a green uniform. Schools have closed, and she has returned to the centre.

Wakili is shy. Not a single second of the 14 minutes I sit down with her does she look at my face. She cracks her knuckles throughout.

“Take it like I'm one of your friends you've met along the road and you start a lively chat with her," I try to ease her tension.

She then shares her story:

“I come from the Manyara region. I am a Nyaturu (ethnic group). My parents are both alive. We are supposed to be six siblings, but our firstborn died at birth. He would have been our only brother as the rest of us are girls. I come second, so I automatically take his place as the eldest.

Forced out of school

“In 2019, when I was 11 and in Class Seven, my father pulled me out of school. For a long time, he had complained that I was wasting his resources. He'd tell me if he had a son, he'd educate him and not me because I'd be married and my education would not be of benefit to him.

“I asked my mother why she would not stop my father, but she said there was nothing she could do. He would scold me whenever he found me playing with my younger siblings, saying I was an adult, mature enough for marriage and I should behave so.

“I stayed home for a while doing all the domestic chores before my mother sent me to another home far away from ours. I don't know where it was, but the distance is like from here to Katesh (one-hour drive from the centre). 

“I became a domestic worker doing the same work I did at home. A few days later, my mother came for me. She said my father wanted me back home as I had visitors waiting for me. They had come to pick me up, but she didn't disclose who they were.

Also read: Unicef: War on child marriage far from over

“But I didn't see them when I arrived. I slept. The following day, my mother took me to a community chairperson where I met another woman who brought me here. I came here in September 2019.

“Later, my grandmother told me my father had planned to marry me off, but the community chairperson got wind of it and that's how I was rescued.

“I'm now in Form Four and want to be a lawyer. I don't want to go back to my parents. My grandmother told me my father wasn't arrested because he consented to the continuation of my education. The centre takes care of everything.

“Given the chance, I can only visit my grandmother."

Child marriage is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) and amounts to human rights violations that leave girls at enhanced risk of sexual, psychological and physical violence, as well as related negative outcomes.

*Name changed to protect identity.

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