Zilpah: A Story of HOPE

Being born the 5th of 9 children, I grew up in poverty and low nutrition, and after failing to proceed with my education after primary school, I learned tailoring. Not knowing much, I got introduced to sex as a teenager, and soon I found myself pregnant, with pressure from the child’s father to abort. I decided to keep the pregnancy, constantly worrying how this new life will be, seeing that I had no income, and was worried what my child would eat. I got a job as a housemaid in Tabora, earning $8 a month, but the boss sexually harassed me, constantly wanting to sleep with me even after making it clear that I am young enough to be his daughter, so I had to quit. A local pastor took me to live with them and work as a housemaid for $6 a month, until I found a housemaid job in Dar es Salaam for $16 a month. All this time my son was living in the village with my parents and I would send whatever I could save to help with food and buying exercise books for school. Because of life hardship, my son rejected school in Standard 3. Life expenses in Dar and my desire for my son to study made me become a road-side hawker selling phone adapters, covers, and screen protectors – but it wasn’t long before the city rangers came and broke our roadside setups. I took a train back home which was delayed for 3 days because of rain, but I finally managed to convince my son to go back to school after a long talk. The school he is attending is a 1 hour walk, and I can’t afford school lunch so he has to walk home to eat. I am saving money to buy him a bicycle. I had lost all hope, and fell into depression because I could not afford to bring my son to live with me in Dar, and he started getting involved in bad company. My health break, and at one point even attempted suicide. The morning I was to end it all, I received a message from a project called Mama Jasiri – they claimed that we will not only gain skills, but they will also give us transportation allowance and breakfast. It sounded too good to be true, but at the stage I was in, I’d take anything. I was desperate. Mama Jasiri has taught me more than just sisal weaving, wielding, carpentry, and entrepreneurship skills. It has taught me to look at life with buoyancy, to have a positive self-talk, to build good habits like saving even the small amounts I make – I see the project as a bridge that moved me from a place of despair to a place of hope. I now see myself as a woman who can raise her son well. Whenever I come here, my HOPE is renewed.