Following the death of both of her parents in quick succession, one 13-year-old girl was sent to sleep on her grandmother’s floor before she was sold into marriage for just £7.
Tamara, was born into a family that lived below the poverty line, like the majority of others in her rural farming community.
When Tamara’s mum and dad both died when she was taken in by her grandmother. But this did not last long, she returned from school one day to receive the horrifying news she had been sold.
A man in his 20s who had never met Tamara paid 15,000 Malawian kwacha for her – around $9, or £7.
Her grandmother had already exchanged the money for maize to feed the family and the man was impatient for Tamara to quit school and move to live with him.
By 12 Tamara was expecting a baby. “She told me I had to get married,” Tamara told the BBC. “She had already received money from a man.”
“Life was difficult because the man was older,” Tamara added. “He used to physically abuse me by biting me every time I did something wrong.”
After three months of abuse the alarm was raised to social services. The man fled, leaving Tamara to walk to her aunt’s village.
Tamara was returned to school but it was at this point she noticed she had missed some periods. Aged just 12 she had to come to terms with giving birth. At 13 Tamara was nine months pregnant and sleeping on the floor of her aunt’s small hut whilst continuing to work the fields.
Ultimately, Tamara gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Prince. A small Malawian NGO based in the city of Blantyre, called People Serving Girls At Risk, paid for a man on a bicycle to pedal her to the local health clinic when she went into labour.
The NGO also performed regular check-ins with her and her aunt. Thankfully, Tamara’s labour was also uncomplicated, which is not the case for many child brides, according to The World Health Organisation.
“Tamara is back home and doing well with her young son, her family are very happy about his arrival,” says Caleb Ng’ombo, executive director at People Serving Girls At Risk.
“She has the support of the community and her aunt, but the real work starts now. It would be better for her to return to school but she also needs to support her child.”
Tamara said she hopes Prince will be able to finish school. The young mum now helps out on her aunt’s vegetable stall which brings in about £39 a month.
It’s a few steps away from their hut. Tamara helps out when she can and manages to maintain a social life with the other girls in the village.
It is estimated one in five girls across the world are married by the age of 18, according to campaign group Girls Not Brides. Even countries which have laws against child marriage sometimes fail to enforce them but in Malawi some are seeing the first signs of change.
Child marriage has been illegal in Malawi since 2017, but it still remains culturally acceptable in rural communities like Tamara’s, where about 85 per cent of Malawi’s population live. More than 40 per cent of girls in the country are married under the age of 18, according to Girls Not Brides.
