Against All Odds

Child marriages and early pregnancy spell the end of dreams.

This week 58 Secondary School girls being sponsored by TEMBO are preparing to return to school for Term II. Many have just finished a 2 week intensive English program called TEC - TEMBO English Camp - an experience in Longido that will better equip them to be successful in their studies. As many of you already know, this program, and Secondary School sponsorship, are generously funded by donations made to Project TEMBO in Canada.

I can picture the faces of so many of these girls. Compared to Canadian girls their age they are physically very small. Yet they teeter precariously on the edge of a very adult ritual they have, thus far, avoided - marriage. So many of their young friends, like millions of other girls around the world, have not been so lucky. This has prompted Time Magazine to recently ask the question, "Why is it so Hard to Combat Child Marriage?"

Joyce, from Kimokouwa, is currently at the 
University of Dar es Salam and stands as 
a role model for young girls.

 All girls TEMBO sponsors are not successful in navigating the minefield of child marriage and early pregnancy. I can tell you about Sara (not her real name) a Form 2 girl who attended TEC 2 years ago. Sara is from a very poor Maasai family and is young and full of dreams for life as an independent woman able to support herself economically. She could not attend TEC a year ago because she was pregnant and women in the village felt that allowing her to attend would be setting a bad precedent. Sara delivered a baby girl in October 2011. Still she enthusiastically wants to return to school and not get married to an older man. Sara knows only too well that marriage would spell the end of her dreams and relegate her to life as a woman with no voice.“[Child marriage] is one of the most stark examples of the devaluing of girls and of girls abilities beyond that of being wives and mothers,” says Margaret Hempel of the Ford Foundation. "The challenges faced by a female child bride are profound: the dwindling of opportunities for education, the loss of any hope for economic independence, the threat of infant mortality—the total narrowing of the girl’s life," the Time article continues.

The Ford Foundation has just released an interactive world map on child marriage and it is very telling and not surprising to those who have spent time in northern Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the 30 countries in the world with the highest rates of child marriages with almost 50% of girls married by age 18. Longido and Kimokouwa - where TEMBO works - are situated in one of two areas in Tanzania that have both the highest rates of child marriages and the lowest rates of education for girls. 

 The Ford Foundation believes that lasting solutions will come from those most directly affected. Those of us with resources can stand with mothers and daughters who want to change this practice.“Some of the most effective [solutions] are finding ways for girls themselves to be able to talk about the future that they want and be visible spokespeople for these changes in their own lives.” If you are supporting TEMBO you are actively engaged with us in doing this work through education sponsorships and the work of TEMBO staff, Paulina and Mary, in Tanzania. Sponsorship is crucial because it places girls in a safe school environment where child marriage is delayed. 

Mary and Paulina are powerful education advocates.

Mary and Paulina, two young Maasai women who understand the challenges, take it a step further by meeting regularly with the girls in school and talking about their "rights" and how to respond to unwanted advances by men. Girls who have had little experience outside of the confines of their family bomas don't know that life can be different for them then it has been for their mothers. Imagine the freedom and joy of  the sound of a girls own voice saying 'no' to centuries of ingrained behaviour. 

If the 58 girls about to begin Term 2 at Secondary School can withstand cultural pressures to be traditional Maasai women who marry early and have babies; and if they can stay in school instead, it will be thanks in large part to the partnership of donors to Project TEMBO in Canada with TEMBO Trust staff on the ground in Tanzania. Most of the credit, though, must go to the girls themselves for enduring in the face of such great odds against them.

Early Pregnancy and Education

The new school year began early in January and TEMBO Trust staff successfully enrolled 18 new girls in Secondary School. If I close my eyes it is so easy to see their faces even though I was not in Tanzania when they were selected. Physically the girls are very small, in so many ways still children with their whole lives ahead of them. Since they passed the mandatory Standard Seven Leaving Exam at the end of Primary School, and have qualified to receive sponsorship by TEMBO, the girls now have the opportunity to continue their education. The challenges they will face on this new journey are going to be enormous and the girls deserve all the help we can give them.

Some of the TEMBO sponsored girls.

One of the greatest challenges they will face is avoiding early pregnancy. In Tanzania, if a girl becomes pregnant she will not be admitted to Secondary School. It's an old law that many, both within and outside the education system are trying to change, including TEMBO Trust staff and trustees. To understand the difficulty the girls face you need to understand African culture and, in particular, the Maasai culture. Among the Maasai, sexual activity at a young age is seen to be normal and even welcome. This is especially so in families where parents have received little or no education.

Most of the girls TEMBO sponsors belong to the Maasai tribe that populates the northern part of the country including Longido and Kimokouwa. Like many other African tribes, the Maasai depend upon extended families to sustain their lifestyles. There is a lot of hard work to do. Multiple wives with many children and large cattle herds has been typical until recently. The new reality of continual drought is prompting many Maasai to now switch to herding goats. Nonetheless, the children participate in caring for the animals. While the young boys are with the herds the young girls are helping run the households – walking long distances each day to fetch firewood and water, caring for the young, cooking and keeping the boma tidy. Add in the reality of early death - often in the mid 40's - and it's clear that large families are a way of ensuring there is always a ready workforce.

There is an alternative to girls simply following in the footsteps of their mothers and remaining traditional Maasai. It is formal education. In fact, many women want their daughters to be educated and have lives different than theirs. More and more, Maasai men are allowing their daughters to attend secondary school. Common practice is if a girl receives sponsorship she will be allowed to go to school, and if a girl is in school she will not be given in marriage to a man. For the most part this works and girls are protected from early marriages – at least until they finish Form 4 or Grade 12. But not always.

Sponsorship includes providing everything for living at boarding school

At the beginning of January 2012, the new school year, three of the girls TEMBO has been sponsoring have been turned away from school because of pregnancy. The girls returned to their bomas to give birth. For most girls in this situation, the next step will be marriage to an older man in exchange for cattle given to the father of the girl. Guess what? These girls are not some small exception. Consider these statistics from the website The Elders:

• Every day, it is estimated that more than 25,000 girls under the age of 18 are married. 
• 100 million more girls – around 10 million each year – will become child brides over the next decade.
•  In the developing world, one in three girls is married before she is 18; one in seven before she is 15.
•  A girl under the age of 15 is five times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in her twenties.

These numbers are staggering! They also have names and faces. If at all possible, TEMBO will look for a private school to send the girls to to continue their education. This will depend upon whether or not money is available since private school sponsorships are a much more expensive option. 

Girls are learning to speak for themselves.

There is hope for change and in the next post you will hear about small actions that are making a big difference.