Joyce Simon: 13-year-old Tanzanian schoolgirl campaigns against early marriage
- A 13-year-old girl with albinism in Tanzania is leading a campaign to make sure girls in that country complete their education
- The girl, Joyce Simon, says her parents wanted her to deliberately fail her exams so that she would not continue her education
- Joyce says she was among the top students that passed the exams
Joyce Simon, a 13-year-old girl with albinism in Tanzania, is leading a campaign to make sure girls in that country complete their schooling.
The girl disclosed that her parents wanted her to deliberately fail her exams so that she would not continue her education, but she was among the top students that passed.
BBC reports that Joyce said her parents wished she failed because they feared for her safety in school due to her albinism.
Legit.ng gathers that other parents in Faith's area Chamwino district of Dodoma encourage their daughters to fail exams so they could get married and the parents receive a dowry.
Source: UGC
Joyce said: "When I was in class seven, several people came to me and told me to fail my national examination. But I didn’t listen to any of it. I continued praying and when the results were out, I was among the top students."
When her parents could not afford to pay her school fees when she was selected to join a top school, an association of Tanzanian students who studied in Australia came to her rescue and sponsored her to attend school in Singida region.
Joyce now leads other activists in a campaign to ensure girls in Tanzania complete their schooling.
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In other news, a 23-year-old Kenyan lady identified as Faith Cherop has said she escaped child marriage to further her education, an event that has made her a happy woman.
She said her father was not supportive of her education when she started schooling, but she completed her primary education.
Faith said she had to stay at home because her father could not afford to send her to secondary school.
She said: "Even if he could, he would only take my brothers. He said I had to stay at home or get married. In my community, child marriage has been practiced for a long time but lately the government has stepped up efforts to stop it. Anyone found engaging in this is prosecuted."
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Source: Legit.ng
