One of our School Start Pack beneficiaries is Anne* and her mother is Mary*.
Anne has been in one of our education clubs in the past and is now a teen in her final year of High school. Earlier in the year, Anne and her family had to seek refuge in a local catholic church due to flooding to their small tin house. They carried all their belongings to shelter in one of the rooms, sharing with other affected families.
Mary had been struggling to keep up with her weekly expenses by that time and her husband, a local boda boda (motorbike taxi) rider spent all his income out in the pubs.
One day he approached one of our mentors, Grace, with concerns over his daughter’s whereabouts. Anne had been missing from their temporary shelter for a few days after falsely claiming to be with Grace’s daughter at her home.
Milele had to act swiftly to connect with Anne and to counsel her. Thankfully she was open and receptive to counselling, so we sent one of the mentors to be with her on a video chat where she was able to disclose her concerns to us and discuss her situation.
We encouraged her that if she would honour her parents and focus on helping her mother out when at home and completing high school, we would do all in our power to support her through her tertiary education or the career path of her choice. She accepted this and we all believe that she will honour her word. Her family are still struggling with poverty, but Anne has now been received back into school. She is one of the fortunate girls to narrowly escape being a teen mother statistic in 2020. Other girls have not been so fortunate.