My name is Mariana.

I won’t deny I am aging far too well compared to the women my age that I have grown up with. I am 47 but I could probably pass for 30 (the number of years I have been married). I have a loving and supportive husband who is also the father to my 12 children.

We have always been a big happy family; there for each other in good or bad times.

We got the food from our garden, my husband and I built four huts and two granaries. During the holidays, the children helped out with the garden work. And the health centre was in the a few meters away and very affordable. Atleast we had all our basic needs were covered.

Bringing up 12 children was not search a burden until they reached secondary school going age. Giving your children a good life today is not about how many cows you herd for them to inherit when you die or how well you groom your girls to be good future wives; it is how much you invest in their education.

Over twenty years ago, educating children was not such a big problem because you could choose to pay tuition in kind if you did not have the money at hand.

Now almost no school wants tuition in kind. You cannot blame the schools because sometimes the schools do not have market for the produce many of which are perishable.

As a child I valued education but my parents could not afford to send me to school. Therefore, I wanted the best education for my children.

I had to find a way to support my husband.

When I had of the scholarship scheme of MIFUMI Primary school where my children were, I encouraged them to read hard so they could be eligible for the scholarship. My prayers were answered and one of my sons was a awarded a scholarship for secondary school, to me this was a burden reduced because he got to go to a good school.

In July 2006 I was among the women given a startup park to support my family. I received 2 goats from MIFUMI and I must confess these goats changed my life and that of my family.  The goat delivered 12 kids which I sold and invested the money in farming. And today I have a 3 acre plantation of cassava, 2 of millet, 2 of maize and a 1 and half of groundnuts.

I would have chosen to slaughter the 2 goats and sold the meat for a few short lived shillings but my patience did pay off. All my 12 children are in school.

Because of my hard work and passion towards women’s issues especially Women Rights and Domestic violence in my village, MIFUMI recruited me as an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor, trained me in counseling and pays me an allowance for the work I do at the advice center.

What more could I want.