My name is Kindness and I am 15 years old. On a normal day, my three brothers and father wake up at 5 am and take the cows to graze. When my mother and I wake up at 6 am, we make tea for the whole family. When the men get back with the cows and goats, we go out to milk them. Afterwards, I leave to find firewood with the other girls in my village. Sometimes we have to walk very far and so it takes us most of the day. We usually return around 2 pm when we go home for lunch. After lunch we milk the cows again. Once we finish milking the cows, we go inside to find our mother preparing dinner. Once I have eaten dinner, I do my studies for school. If I am not in school, I would be among the girls who dance. In our culture, girls can get married as young as eight years old. Every night, one house is chosen, and all of the eligible girls in the village go there to dance, sometimes until 2 in the morning, while the men of the village watch. They are watching us to decide if they want to choose one of us to be their bride. I have not had to do this because I have been in school, but if I am at home for too long, or if my father has nothing to give me, he starts to think about marrying me off for a dowry of cows. If I am in school, I am spared having to dance in front of the men in my village every night, and I am spared having to marry young- but I am also spared from enduring female genital mutilation (FGM) which is a common practice for girls in my culture. When girls are educated in my tribe, we have a better chance at being listened to when we say we don’t want these things.
My dream is to become a human rights lawyer and fight female genital mutilation and young marriages in my own community- to defend girls like myself.
Thank you for helping me to go to school!”
Graceful Warrior: Tanzania
