Fatuma

Fatuma is the beautiful 13 year old girl who lives with us in Msambweni. She’s the househelp. Until my last night in Msambweni, I was so confused as to why my family, progressive for their rural town, would let a 13 year old be caring for their child and cooking and cleaning instead of being at school. Then Mama told me Fatuma’s story. She lived in a village even more rural than Msambweni, her family struggling to put food on the table. Because of their circumstances, Fatuma was more of a burden than a blessing to her mother, who decided that the best option was to sell her daughter into marriage. Baba heard about this and, thankfully, instead of taking the preteen as his second wife, decided to help. Mama and Baba hired Fatuma and she now lives a life of relative calm in Msambweni, with food in her stomach and happily unmarried. Fatuma is the sweetest, most agreeable girl ever and Mama struggles to let her go home to visit her mother in fear that she’ll get talked into an arranged marriage. She usually tries to have Mariam, Kinanasi, or one of my other sisters accompany Fatuma for some protection. Mama has plans to send Fatuma to learn tailoring during the day once Suleiman is old enough to go to school and she has some time. Then, when Fatuma is 17 or 18 she will have a marketable skill where she can make a good life for herself and she won’t have to rely on an early marriage. I was so relieved after hearing this story—Mama and Baba are helping Fatuma instead of exploiting her, and Fatuma has a good chance to grow up to live a happy, normal life with Mama and Baba on her side fighting for her.