{"id":356,"date":"2015-03-27T04:38:01","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T04:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asdhostingservices.com\/awdf-2\/?p=356"},"modified":"2015-11-25T01:10:39","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T01:10:39","slug":"christina-assima-has-a-dream-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/OldSite\/christina-assima-has-a-dream-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Grantee highlight: Christina Assima Has a Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"en\">Fifteen-year-old mother, Christina Assima, dreams of being a nurse.But there is a long tortuous journey ahead of her, especially as a student with a two year-old son living virtually by herself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Christina is a beneficiary of the AWDF funded project that was implemented\u00a0by Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) in Malawi. GENET was funded to\u00a0support young women develop their business skills and build their leadership\u00a0capacities. As part of the project, GENET sets up girls and young women\u2019s\u00a0networks in project communities. It was through the girls\u2019 network that\u00a0Christina came into contract with the project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">But the story begins after Christina&#8217;s parents broke up and her mum and four\u00a0siblings relocated to the Saenda village in the Chitela Traditional Authority.\u00a0This is an area with high levels of child marriages and child mothers. Not long\u00a0afterward, her mother eloped with a man, leaving Christina and her three\u00a0siblings by themselves. Christina, at twelve-years-old, automatically became\u00a0mother to the lot &#8211; the oldest of whom was about seven and the youngest less\u00a0than two years.\u00a0After a heavy rainfall pushed down their family house, Christina and her\u00a0siblings were left withn nowhere to sleep. A relative offered them a dilapidated\u00a0room. It was a harsh lifestyle. Christina had to do menial jobs to cater for\u00a0herself and her family. Then her peers and older friends started pressuring her\u00a0to enter into a relationship. At thirteen she found herself pregnant, alone\u00a0and caring for three younger siblings with no source of income.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">But relief came through a group of her former school mates who invited her to\u00a0join the Girls Network, an offshoot of the GENET project. Christina started\u00a0attending their weekly Sunday meetings where she learned about family\u00a0planning, her right to education and good health. She quickly grew more\u00a0confident and resolute. The group members specifically singled Christina out\u00a0to be supported to go back to school.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">With the help of GENET, Social Welfare and family members went out in\u00a0search of Christina\u2019s mother and persuaded her to come for Christina\u2019s\u00a0siblings, thus freeing Christina to pursue her dream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">GENET negotiated with a family member to help look after the baby and\u00a0Christina was re-enrolled in school. The family member cares for the baby\u00a0while Christina is in school and she takes over when she returns, studying\u00a0while her baby sleeps. The project alsom provided her with school materials and\u00a0food items.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">GENET also sourced support from Kids Right, a funder, to build a house for\u00a0Christina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">\u201cThe project has helped to build my self-confidence and I have learned a lot of\u00a0things and am better able to avoid the temptations of life, &#8221; she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Christina has already been in school for one academic year with GENET\u00a0support, and she will proceed to Secondary form 2 in the upcoming academic\u00a0year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Christina says, \u201cMy dream is to become a nurse and look after my son and to\u00a0help my community to learn and understand the importance of education and\u00a0the ills of encouraging children into early marriage.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">As a result of the work being done by GENET and other civil society\u00a0organisations, the Chitera traditional authority, which commonly had\u00a0marriages of people under fifteen-years-old, has banned marriages of\u00a0females less than 21 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/africlub.net\/awdf\/take-action\/#make_a_donation\">Join us in supporting work like this by making a contribution to AWDF today!\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment-and-livelihoods","category-grantees"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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