The pain of watching your friends head off to school every day while you toil by the roadside making kokoto is unbearable.
This weighs heavily on my heart.
Meet Bridget, a bright 13-year-old girl in Form One, whose dreams are on hold this third term because of unpaid fees, remedial costs, and a ream of paper. Bridget is a partial orphan, relying solely on her mother, a widow who struggles to make ends meet by making kokoto.
“She went to school and was turned away. Since the term started, she hasn’t set foot in class because I can’t afford to pay for the ream (750), remedial fees (1,000), and school fees (3,000). Her older sister, in Form Three, is also out of school due to lack of fees (8,000).
I can only work with kokoto, and my earnings depend on how much I can produce. Bridget and I work side by side, trying to scrape together enough for a meal and a little towards her fees, but it’s never enough. Their father is gone, and it’s just me trying to keep this family together…” Bridget’s mom said, her voice filled with despair.
“I haven’t been to school since the term started. I sit here making kokoto, feeling lost and alone. It hurts so much to see my friends going to school while I can’t. I wish there was something I could do, but my mom has no other job, and my dad is no longer here… ” Bridget lamented, tears in her eyes.
Makanda Foundation: A Community of Hope and Prosperity. Let’s come together to lighten this burden for her mother; it breaks my heart to see this, especially now in this term.