29 Minus 16: Married As a Child - ChildFund International

Loveness is 5.

Mavis is beautiful, and full of love, and she lights up when she looks at her five children. She is 29.

Mavis’ father died when she was 2. Her mother remarried soon after. Mavis’ new stepfather didn’t want her, so her mother gave her to an aunt, whose husband supported the family with odd jobs. When those dried up, Mavis had to quit school.

She was 10 and in third grade.

At 12, Mavis’ life got away from her, and she became pregnant. Choices were made for her, including marriage to the father, a 7th-grader who had to quit school to care for his new family.

Mavis didn’t die when she thought she would, at 13, as she labored three days to give birth to Carol at home. They couldn’t afford to go to the hospital.

She didn’t die at 15, when Stephen was born. But the chores became too much for her, and her young husband, frustrated and still a child himself, began beating her.

She blamed herself. She still does. “I was very childish,” she says. “I could not manage household chores like cooking for my husband, looking after my babies, washing clothes for my husband and my babies.”

“I behaved like a child until I had my third one,” she says. The beatings ended.

Around then, a ChildFund social worker visited and told them about sponsorship, livelihood training and other opportunities available to them as young parents. By the time Faris was born, when Mavis was 18, life had improved.

As a child, Mavis had dreams. “At school, I was dreaming of becoming a teacher or doctor, because I wanted to look after my mother,” she says.

The family lives in a small compound with various cousins and in-laws. Mavis’ husband volunteers with ChildFund’s local partner organization. Both Carol and Faris are sponsored through ChildFund, and all the children participate in various programs. “ChildFund encourages children to remain in school until they finish,” says Mavis.

Now her dreams are for her children. “I want my children to be educated,” she insists. “I don’t want my children to experience what I went through. Because I don’t know many things — I don’t know how to read or write my name. I don’t want my children to earn a living by selling tomatoes like me.”

“Carol is committed to school,” Mavis adds. “She does not fool around, and I teach her about the way a young lady should conduct herself.”

Carol aspires to become a teacher so she can take care of her parents.

Mavis’ oldest child, Carol, is 16. Twenty-nine minus 16 is 13.

And she dreams of learning to read and write.

Given the occasional chance, Mavis still loves to play.