Veronica Kindaye’s Story
My Father married my Mother and they divorced when I was one. I was taken care of by my Grandmother.
When I was five I was taken care of by my Father. It wasn’t easy to live there as he did not marry again. When he went away I stayed with different people. My Father promised many, many men that I would marry them when I grew up.
At the age of twelve I was mutilated [Female Genital Mutilation] during the normal rite of passage and I was married. My father married me to four men. I married one man but my father quarrelled with that man over the dowry and he moved me on to another man. Again I was taken away and passed on to another man. I was married four times.
At the last Boma [enclosed homestead] I broke my leg. After that I came back to my father’s home. Because I stayed with him, all those husbands came to my Father and wanted to be paid back. But my Father had spent the entire dowry. They all believed I belonged to each of them. Then my Father fell sick and died. At that time I was engaged and the man provided me with clothes and food. I didn’t know his family. I met him, we fell in love, and we decided to marry. We stayed together for seven years and had three children. Then the conflict began. All that we produced together for seven years, he took it all, and he took all the children and he threw me out of the home. He left only one child with me out of three, the one from a former husband. I don’t see the other children and don’t know where they are living.
I came and requested assistance from PWC. I was just like an orphan. I had no parents, no husband, no children. PWC encouraged me to go to the court. However, because I delayed going to court and the man was able financially, he was given the right to have my children. From 2004 PWC has assisted me as I had no home, no parents, no relatives. PWC gave me some work to do. PWC is in fact like my family and takes care of me. I now live in PWC’s Boma with my daughter. PWC are supporting her through secondary school. PWC gave me 3 goats and 2 sheep, all pregnant so I will have a small income.
I would like PWC to be able to support women like me – women who might commit suicide. So support PWC as much as you can and may God bless you.