This is Pastor Maurice, administrator of Hope for Children Center Orphanage. As you all probably know, God called me to serve him by showing the world the way to eternal life. I have been so much dedicated and always worked hard to see that at least my words and deeds become a testimony to people who meet me. In my life, I have always wanted to be a friend to all, a thing which I really like. I don’t want to have any enemy in the world. I have always learned that in order to be happy, I should always love people despite their weaknesses.

I know very well that I also have my own weaknesses.  We should not always dwell on the negative side of someone but we should learn to see the positive side of people.

Today, I want to speak about something that has made me get enemies unexpectedly. Some few people hate me these days for the stand I take and for what I feel is the right thing to do. Some of them have even threatened me with death.

On the 17th November 2005, a woman came to Hope for Children Center Orphanage.  She came to request for a place for a African girl child who had been sexually abused and was desperate. This girl never wanted to go back to her grandparents. Of course she was an orphan, and that is why this woman thought it wise to request for a place for her at our orphanage.

She was a seventeen year old African girl child who truly needed immediate assistance. She had been forced to marry a man whom she never wanted, because the man had promised her grandfather several heads of cattle as dowry. The girl refused and even ran away to avoid this evil marriage. Then the grandfather sent some strong teenage boys to go look for her. Of course the husband-to-be had to pay the boys for the task. The boys searched for two days and finally found her and took her directly to that man’s house...

The girl told him that, “Because you are the first man to see my nakedness, I have willingly accepted to marry you and will not leave you for the rest of my life.” When the man heard that, he felt so happy and knew he had succeeded. He told the girl just to stay at home while he went to buy some chicken for their dinner. I think this was in celebration of his success. He went back home with the chicken only to find that the girl had escaped. Then the girl went and reported to the chief who never even wanted to take any action.

Fortunately, someone who was at the chief’s camp heard her telling her story and directed her to this woman who came to look for a place for her. I am glad the woman took the issue to the police and the man was arrested. He is still serving part of his eleven-years jail term for sexually abusing the girl.

As we were discussing with this woman, I came to find out that she is one of the few brave women in Africa who are advocating for the rights of the African girl child. I found out that the girl she helped was not even her relative. They had no blood relation at all. This made me get interested and I wanted to know more from her. We had a long discussion, which I cannot explain all for lack of space in the newsletter. But in short, our discussion lit some fire in me. Even though I used to advocate for the rights of the children, but not to the depth that she was doing it.

The woman met her death in February this year just when she was on her way from a shop at 8:00 p.m. She had bought sugar and some loaves of bread and was walking home as she always did, when some five men approached her and demanded to know why she is always against men. Before she could answer them, one of them hit her on the head with a blunt object and she fell down. She died five days after the incident. Even though it was dark, she could identify two of her killers. They were arrested and they mentioned the other three. Their case is yet to be decided and they are still in the police cells.

In some communities in Africa, advocating for the rights of the African girl child is very risky. This is because some traditions in Africa do not value girls. This is so even in my community.  Girls, or even women, were not allowed to talk in the presence of men. They were not allowed to even contribute in a topic of discussion. They were taken to be so inferior, and just a tool meant for bearing children. Most communities considered it an abomination for a woman to give advice in a home. Wife beating was the order of the day. It is even worse for the female orphan.  The worst part of it is that even women themselves enjoyed this kind of beastly lives.

Girls were not allowed to choose men for themselves. Often, their parents did the choosing for them. They had to marry the choice of their parents whether they liked it or not. They were not allowed to question even the character of the husband-to-be. Men overpowered their wives to an extent that if one felt like marrying a second wife, he would tell his wife to look for a nice lady for him. The woman would go around looking for a co-wife for her husband.