From adversity to triumph

Irene Erasto Marangusi had not been feeling well for quite a while and on that day she decided to go for a medical checkup at one of the health centres.

Her close friend, Maida Bosco who was in Form Three at that time had noticed changes in her body plus the drop in academic performance.

Sitting in the waiting room she hoped it was one of those minor illnesses but then the worst hit her when the doctor confirmed that she was actually pregnant. It was a painful pronouncement that brought her face to face with reality.

She felt like the whole world had deserted her as her dreams evaporated in thin air in a matter of seconds. She knew that from that minute on she had to pack her belongings and go back home.

This came just three months after she had joined Form Two in March 2010 at Ujenzi Secondary School in Mkuranga District.

Irene had been suffering silently after she had been raped one afternoon by a family friend.

On that fateful day in September 2009 she had been asked to take some money to the guy who had repaired the family TV and as it turned out he was the man responsible for pregnancy.

“I had kept quiet about the incident and continued with school as if all was well. As the Easter mid-term break approached, my close friend Mainda advised me to remain at home after the holiday. That’s how my life at Ujenzi Secondary School ended,” she says.

She says that as days went on she continued to grow weaker and suffered from frequent headaches. It was not until the seventh month of pregnancy that her family realized that all was not well.

This did not please her family at all! And what followed was sheer stigma as their neighbours saw her as an outcast who had brought shame to the family especially with the fact that her mother Trifonia Michael was a nurse at Kisarawe District Hospital.

“I was hurt by the gossip that was going around and spent most of my time locked up in my bedroom. On June 12, 2010 I gave birth to a baby girl, who I named Silvia,” she says.

Speaking at the Youth Employment Empowerment (YEE) graduations last week, Irene says she did not let her adversity turn into despair as she promised to get back to her feet again.

“I was determined to work hard to prove the critics wrong. I wanted them to know that giving birth wasn’t the end of the road for a girl” she says. She applied for the training facilitated by Plan International and Vocational Educational Training Authority (Veta) under the EU funding last year. “I chose a course on motor vehicle mechanic after consulting my mother, we concluded that the course would provide wider employment opportunities and I still wanted to be a mechanical engineer” she says.

Irene says that when she reported at the district council workshop where trainings took place she found out that she was the only female student in a class of 18.

They had to start from the beginning with basic theories which were followed by practical lessons but this was not until they had mastered the road safety rules and regulations. What followed was intensive six-month training at the workshop and apart from motor vehicle mechanics, they were also taught entrepreneurship and financial management.

In April this year she participated in a seminar aimed at empowering youth that took place at Veta Coast Regional offices in Kibaha.

“I got to know that districts had youth development funds and we were supposed to organise ourselves and form groups so as to access loans and financial assistance from the district and other development stakeholders,” she says.

After the workshop, she said she persuaded four colleagues to collectively form a group called the Youth Empowerment Motor Vehicles Kisarawe Group (Yemoki). The group was registered and they intend to start off with a parts shop which will cost some Sh 10 million.

“We conducted research on the business, discovered the opportunities it has. We have already secured a location for the business, it has enough space that allows us to undertake maintenance activities. Hopefully, the project will transform our lives,” she says.

Kisarawe District Youth Officer, Mr Rashid Dalidali acknowledges to have received Yemoki Group project proposal requesting Sh10 million loan through the Youth Development Funds, (YDF).

According to him the disbursement of funds depends on availability of funds, fulfillment of primary requirements such as registrations, member’s stock ownership in the Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (Saccos).