Abena is only 15 years old but she has been through so much. Her suffering seems never ending and she admits that she sometimes loses the will to carry on.
“The drought destroyed me. I have lost everything. I have had no contact with my husband since he left. I don’t even know if he’s alive. Sometimes, I just want to kill myself.”
As Ethiopia struggles to recover from one of the worst droughts in recent history, the number of child marriages are soaring.
Orphaned as a young girl and left in the care of her grandmother, Abena was 13 when she was married to a man in his thirties. Soon after, her husband left her.
Still a child herself, Abena has been left alone to care for her baby girl. With nowhere else to go, she moved to a camp for people displaced by the drought.
“It is difficult for us to live here because there is no food to eat. I try to collect firewood to sell so that I can buy some food. Me and my child have no food to eat and no water to drink. I feel so bad because I cannot feed my own daughter.
When I breastfeed, I feel like I am going to faint. I feel so unwell because I am hungry. I try to feed my baby three times a day, but most of the time I am hungry and go without eating. Sometimes, when I don’t have anything to eat, I just stay home and cry.”
Abena does not dream about her future. Her only hope is that she can keep her baby alive and get the chance to provide her with a better life.
