“I remember that day, my mother sent me for shopping, she gave me Shs20,000, I descended to Oasis Mall in Kampala. Few hours later, I returned, my mother was no where to be seen,”
“At first I took it lightly, until when I started screaming, calling her louder, but no response, my helpless two months old sister was crying, equally abandoned on ground.
“Trouble! I screamed. “Who will take care of me? The fatherless me who was surviving on the mercy of a step father was dumbfounded.
Joan Najuko (Not Real Names) is a teen mother of one, we trace her story on the ‘Her Story Project.’
It’s a sunny Monday, time check 7:00am, I set off to Touch the Slum NGO in Namuwongo, a Kampala suburb where I later dived into the emotional story of a teenage mother who has experienced the dark side of violence against women-Teenage Pregnancies.
Najuko’s mother a one Jackline gave birth to four children with Najuko being the oldest,however, her father was different from that of her siblings. She has never seen her father.
“After falling out in the first marriage, my mother got another man (our step dad), but chose to leave the marriage after two months,” she said.
“I became a baby sitter which deprived my Rights to education.”
Like the many young kids, Najuko’s desire for education was no suprise but drained by her mother’s desire for her to Keep watching over her one and half year old sibling at the expense of her school time
“Shrouded in a her own work as a waitress in one of the local restaurants in Namuwongo, my mother later on found her way out of her marriage, a decision I could never relate until now,” she recalls.
At this moment, Najuko says she lost her tenacity and that her mother’s departure marked a very huge turning point and sign engraved at the beginning of her life time struggles.
Her step-father could no longer enclasp her weight, she was catted of the care taker role and the decision to send her down to her mother’s foot steps.
“I didn’t know who my father was,my mother had eloped and really had no where or someone to run too,” she said.
At 16, Najuko’s then boyfriend and father to her child, housed her in one of his brother’s work space were she could struggle with where to live during the day and come back in the evening for sleep.
Her boyfriend had also been transported to the capital to work with his brother at his video library.
Under his brothers nose, The boyfriend sheltered Najuko until when she got pregnant with her first and only child.
The situation then became bitter and the relationship slowly went to drain.
Najuko recalls the unsung, arguments coupled with beatings and all kinds of other violence.
She later on insisted on getting some work so as to find what to feed their newly born, something the boyfriend never embraced.
She later joined a non-government organization in Namuwongo were she could learn hair dressing skills in which she later graduated with a certificate.
Upon completion, she returned to her boyfriend, lived together for about a year before they could be chased out of the house for failure to meet their rent.
She would then return to her step-father, now with a baby and a promise by the boyfriend to let her in again upon completion of his youthful temporary house.
The boyfriend had been lent a piece of land by a friend to find at least a temporary roof on top of his head.
The structure was built, and so did the empty promise of going back for her coming to pass.
The baby father decided to share his room with his mates who Najuko say were addicts and people she couldn’t share a roof with.
With a broken heart and a shuttered childhood dream of becoming one of the best catering service providers, Nasali returned to where she had learnt her hair dressing now not as a student but as a casual worker who is looking forward to starting up her own kiosk
She however remains disheartened by the fact that she can neither read nor write, never got an opportunity to put on a school uniform and the fact that her mother’s detachment in her life led her to the road she is.
She remains a young mother, with no clue about her biological father or even her real age. However, she remains optimistic that her child will get whatever she has missed in life.
