As the world celebrated International Women Day on Thursday, a 28-year-old lady in Malindi stands out as one of the main women champions in an area perceived to be having a strong Muslim environment.
Fatiah Abdula Mohamed is the young lady of the day after coming out from the strong chains of Muslim culture to bring encouragement and future to young girls who would otherwise be married off.
As young as she looks the lady started out one year ago when she singlehandedly started a rescue centre for girls that she quickly converted it to a secondary school for rejected and abused girls in her community and one year later, she continues to attract more and more such girls.
According to her, she is managing the education of 65 girls majority of whom are young and divorced as they were married off at a tender age with only five teachers.
The girls drawn from mainly her village Shella in Malindi Sub County are now being taken through ordinary secondary school curriculum a keen to their counterparts in government and established secondary schools in Kenya at her Malindi Girls Muslim Academy.
In her community, she says it is nearly difficult to find an educated woman while the rest are married off early only for the marriages to run a mock and are forced to divorce and return to their parents home either pregnant or with children.
“Many have ended up joining the drug trafficking world, prostitution or even enticed to join criminal groupings that have been outlawed by the government with a vision of making it in life but at the end, the long arm of the law catches up with them,” she added.
Fatiah says that as a woman who was raised in a harsh environment she started off the idea but people laughed her off until she bumped into SUPKEM officials in Malindi who are now contributing money for her course.
“When I started a year ago people laughed off the idea because they considered me too young with no money to help me up and as they all knew I am from a humble background but right now they flock here for benchmarking,” she added saying that “I just prayed to God that I achieve the goal of changing the lives of the rejected women in my society.”
Each of the five teachers is paid Sh.10,000 every month and to ensure that the institution is smooth running, she secured its registration from the government last year.
“It was difficult but when I established myself, I started receiving letters and calls of a teacher who wanted to help teach in this school, though I have no Teachers Service Commission,” she added.
She insisted that her main focus has been on abandoned and rejected young girls and women and those who failed terribly in exams and this she does without looking at their religious or family backgrounds.
“I want to give them a second chance and I am glad to have now uplifted their standards and they now have respect for society, respect they lost when they were either young and divorced or in drugs,” she says adding that inquiries continue to rise day after a day and she could have wished to enroll more if she had enough capacity.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) secretary-general in Lamu County Mr. Ibrahim Shaib lauded the idea and promised to work closely with Fatiah so that she can get enough government and private support.
He said that in the region it was only Fatiah who had shown interest in helping her fellow young girls achieve the best in life through education.
“Nobody could have imagined these bearing in mind that Fatiah is unemployed and is not among the top cream Muslim ladies recognized in Kenya but through this initiative, none of those can march her ability,” he added.
Mushamu Mohamed who is a local Madrasa teacher said that the Muslim community had for a long time sidelined and mistreated the girl child but as the world moves on the tact need to change so that they can also feel safe and loved adding that she deserves to be a champion on this special day where we celebrate our women.