Zelika's Hope

Zelika, 15, lives in a house so small one has trouble figuring out how she, her siblings and her parents all fit into it. The house is situated in a large compound with a mud wall all around it. With the Hamattan winds [strong winds in West Africa that carry a lot of dust with them], everything is coated in a thin layer of dust. One has to be careful as they get past the gate because right at the entrance, her mother’s firewood is drying out in the sun. 

It is lunchtime and all her siblings are sitting under one of the two trees in the compound eating rice with a reddish sauce. They use their hands to gather the rice into the palms of their hands and form into a ball then pop it into their mouths. The children are enjoying their meal; the two women present are not eating. In the lap of one of the women is a little baby crying at the top of his lungs. As a teenager, one can tell that Zelika, though a loving daughter and sibling, is a little embarrassed of her loud siblings. They on the other hand are excited to have visitors and are dying to have their photos taken. 

“You know my father is sick and has even been in the hospital for a month. When he is sick, he cannot do business, so we have nothing and we don’t even have two meals a day. My mother’s firewood sometimes does not sell in the market,” she says with touching honesty. In Niger, it is normal for people to sell firewood as a way to make money. 

About one dusty block away is Zelika’s haven, a little space where she goes to sew clothes. She learned how to sew through a vocational training made available to her through World Vision. 

“I was in school but I was not doing well. I was not able to study and my scores were always bad. You see my mother is a seller of wood and she always needs help collecting wood to sell,” she says. 

She had a lot of work to do helping her mother and eventually dropped out of school. 

“When I heard of this centre for sewing, I was very excited to come and learn how to sew,” she says with a shy smile. 

So, what if she was not sewing? “Taabi! [problems]” she answers. “If I was not here sewing, I would be in the streets asking people for money and you know people do not give money for nothing.” 

In Niger, a country where there is no legal marriage age, a girl like Zelika is fighting the odds being 15 and unmarried. “If I was not here sewing, I may not already be married but I would have had children with any man,” she says with an air of maturity. 

“Here I sew and I also learned how to knit so I knit caps that I sell to people, and with that I am able to help my family and even to buy some things that I need,” she continues. 

Zelika sells her caps at 1000CFA (US $2). “My mother is proud of me, she says I have a career because she can see that I am here sewing,” she finishes.

“I have never seen my sponsor but I know that my sponsor must be the age of my parents. It cannot be someone my age. I prepared a card for my sponsor last year for Christmas but I don’t know if they liked it,” she says with a shrug. “I received the goat that they sent to me and also other gifts.” 

“All I can say, is God bless that person for helping me,” she finishes.