It was past 1pm when my friend Edie and I, walked towards the school gate to have lunch after what seemed to be an unending lecture. Feeling tired an exhausted we decided to give ourselves a treat, so we headed to the cafeteria. At the cafeteria, we took –out our frustration on the food, eating as if the world was coming to an end. Half- an hour we finally left chatting and laughing (obviously we were over feed) then Edie said ‘’look at that woman” I quickly turned thinking it was something funny but guess what… it was a frustrating sight, there she was ..a young woman probably in her mid-twenties carrying her triplets all looking dirty and un healthy.. I guess from hunger and starvation.
She was sitting across the street opposite the school gate begging for money. For some seconds I stood mute and wondered about the series of happenings that got her to that point...I blamed her parents, her friends ,her husband or whoever got her pregnant, I also blamed her for not getting informed then I figured that the GOVERNMENT also should take a huge part of the blame if not all.
Honestly I felt like crying after I and Edie gave her the change we had…GOD! What was that smell? Her kids had probably defecated on themselves and weren’t properly cleaned. I started to think… Was she aware of contraceptives? If yes, dint she know how to use them? How can you give birth to kids you can’t take care of? What role did religion play in all these? With all these questions in my head I tried to get answers but she wouldn’t say anything because she couldn’t speak English and probably because we were strangers.
Finally I tried to imagine myself in her position, I tell you it wasn’t easy trying to do that but I did my best, though I couldn’t get direct answers all I could get was the fact that she wasn’t educated and did not get any information on sexual reproductive health and rights not to talk of contraceptives. As a young woman, it really broke my heart to see her suffer along with those three lovely kids without been able to do any thing at that instance, but it made me appreciate the knowledge I have about SRHR and also gave me a reason to keep fighting for the SRHR of young people, if not for her at least for her children who posse as potential victims… Now, after all is said, what are you and I doing about this? What is the government doing about it to ensure that such people are taken from the streets and cared for? Because whether we like it or not they can be educated and made better people. Well what ever your answer might be one thing remains sure… ‘We can make a change if we want to’ how about starting by educating a friend today!