It is a sad reality: in many parts of the world, girls and women are still exploited and abused because of their gender. With our projects in southern Africa and Latin America, we give them the chance to take their lives into their own hands and build a more secure future.
Mariam John* is 21 years young and does everything she can to keep herself and her two small children afloat. Abandoned by her partner and rejected by her own family, the young woman has regained the courage to shape her own life and take responsibility for her two children. Her story is exemplary of the fate of many teenage girls in southern Africa and shows how much strength they have when they are given self-confidence and support. After her father died at an early age, Mariam lived with her mother and siblings in the big city of Mwanza. She became pregnant for the first time at the age of 17. She is not an isolated case, on the contrary: in Tanzania, one in five girls becomes pregnant before the age of majority. Contraception and sexuality are traditionally taboo.
Hope for a better life
Mariam’s boyfriend at the time was almost ten years older than her. He approached her when she was selling peanuts on the street after school to contribute to the family’s livelihood. He gave her clothes, some food and small amounts of money – but above all he promised her a good, better and more carefree life. Mariam left school pregnant and gave birth to her daughter Kara. When she was pregnant again, her partner tested positive for HIV, whereupon he separated from Mariam and left her to her fate. Mariam and her child were not infected with the virus. The young mother made her way back to her family with her daughter and newborn son – in the hope of finding a home there again. However, her mother and siblings did not take her back and Mariam was left to fend for herself.
Escaping poverty
In her time of need, she heard about Ebli. Our partner organization in Mwanza is committed to ensuring that young mothers without a school-leaving certificate can escape poverty on their own thanks to education and training. Mariam, who was accepted into the program for young mothers, also benefited from this. At Ebli, she found emotional support, met women with a similar fate and learned to accept her situation. Mariam is a fighter, and thanks to the support she received, she now has her own small business: she sells maize to earn a living. And she has dreams again: Mariam wants to give her children access to school and a healthy life. She talks to other young women about this, informs them about their rights and motivates them to continue attending school. Other issues that are close to her heart are contraception, unwanted pregnancies and false promises – so that other girls are spared the fate that befell her.
Strengthening the talents of young people
The diagnosis of Aids also changed the life of Nobuhle Kunene* from South Africa: after both her parents died of HIV, the 17-year-old now lives with her four younger siblings with her grandparents in the townships of the Kwa Zulu-Natal region. Because she had to look after her siblings and the household, she dropped out of school. At the time, Nobuhle was depressed and had no prospects. This changed when she became active at the youth center, which is supported by our partner organization Dlalanathi. The organization strengthens the talents of young people in South Africa, encourages them to complete an education and play an active role in society. The contact with Dlalanathi was very helpful for Nobuhle: she came together in a protected space with like-minded young people and learned how to draw up personal, realistic training plans so that she could stand on her own two feet. She was taught the basics of organic vegetable growing in a workshop and began to grow her own produce. Today she sells peppers, chilies and cabbage at the market, enabling her to provide for herself and her siblings. Nobuhle has seized her opportunity and is proud of her own small project, which gives her the independence she needs and a healthy sense of self-confidence. Young people like Nobuhle emerge stronger from the Dlalanathi project and thus have the strength to support each other and, for example, help each other out with produce they have grown themselves.
Self-determined and free
Empowering girls and women – this is one of the declared goals of terre des hommes schweiz. Because girls and women who are disadvantaged simply because of their gender need protection and the chance to actively shape their future. Together with our projects and the involvement of young people on the ground, terre des hommes schweiz is committed to protecting young women from exploitation and violence and helping them to lead a self-determined life. Education plays a major role in all projects, as girls and young women in particular need to know how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and take care of their own health. Courses on sexual and reproductive health help them to do this. In a further step, it is also important to strengthen women’s entrepreneurial skills so that they can earn their own living and live independently.
In line with the 2030 Agenda
With our commitment, we are actively helping to implement the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which are formulated in the 2030 Agenda. Goal 3 refers explicitly to health, Goal 5 to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Empowering women means investing in a more sustainable world. With partner organizations such as Ebli and Dlalanathi, terre des hommes schweiz is working with young women such as Mariam John* and Nobuhle Kunene* for fairer living conditions. The two are the best proof that women are able to provide for themselves and their families and make an economic contribution – if they are given the opportunity to do so.
* Names changed by the editors.
Author: Valerie Wendenburg, Media and Communications at terre des hommes schweiz
