Plight of teenage mother of triplets

Nineteen-year-old Rose Nalumu would easily pass for a 40-year-old. Her puffy eyes as two of her children suckle her breasts with the other toddler crying loudly at her side show that she barely gets rest. Aside the few strands of strands of hair that still bear distant traces of treated hair, her hair is turning brown.

When I met her in her one-roomed dilapidated house in Naminya village, Wakisi Sub-county, Buikwe District, it was obvious Nalumu is overwhelmed.

After introducing myself, she gives me a blank stare and as tears roll down her face, she says she left her family in Kayunga District to forge a better life.

Although both her parents are still alive, when she completed Senior Four, it was obvious that there were no means for her to pursue any higher learning.

“I wanted to get some money to further my education as my parents could no longer afford to pay for my education,” she says.
However, after her long search for a job, she realised that her certificate could only take her so far. Nalumu ended up working as a waitress at a make-shift restaurant in Njeru Trading Centre, Buikwe District.

The beginning of the end
Last year in January, during the course of her work, she met Ismael Kyeyune, who was a regular customer (at the restaurant). They fell in love.

“I was earning Shs2,000 a day, and when Kyeyune proposed, I believed that was my big break because in him I saw a way out of my financial woes,” she says.

Even though Nalumu admits she did not know what type of job Kyeyune did, she was confident she had found the right man, who would be her husband.

Two months into their relationship,
Nalumu discovered she was pregnant. When she informed Kyeyune about it, he got furious, and asked her to terminate the pregnancy.

But Nalumu says she rejected the idea, and instead asked the man to take responsibility. Kyeyune later rented for her a single room where she stayed as she continued to work at the restaurant.

He was paying Shs20,000 as monthly rent but this was money he grudgingly paid. “Since that time, Kyeyune’s behaviour changed. He became rude and would rarely give me any assistance. But because I was earning some money, life went on,” she says, adding, “however, when I was seven months pregnant, I was not effective at my job so I decided to stay at home.”

Even in her condition, Kyeyune’s attitude did not change. “He would only give me maize flour and I would have to pinch on my savings to buy sauce.”
However, this would only mark the beginning of Nalumu’s long suffering. When she went into labour, Kyeyune was not at home.

Grim face with reality
It is neighbours who rushed her to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, from where she delivered triplets. Luckily, for her, it was a normal delivery and the boys were in good health. But the hospital insisted that they continue to monitor her and the babies for a few days.

It was on her second night at the hospital that Kyeyune showed up. Rather than congratulate her, he insulted Nalumu and told her he did not have money to look after “all those children”.

“Without giving me any assistance, he went away, abandoning me in the hospital, where I stayed for five days before being discharged,” she says.

Under the care of a relative, Nalumu was taken back to her rented room in Njeru, thinking her husband would return home but he never did. Without any money, she not only failed to buy food but also milk for the babies as breast milk was not enough for them.

For two months, she depended on handouts from Good Samaritans. She used part of that money to buy some few things like sugar, milk, food and sauce.

Because her husband had run away from home, the house rent fee accumulated to Shs200,000. However, the landlord pardoned her but asked her to leave the house.

With no shelter to put her brood, Nalumu embarked on a search for the children’s relations.

In February, she was able to trace the home of her father-in law in Wakisi village.

“When I reached the home, I was speechless as my father-in-law and I were equally needy. His small grass thatched house was in a sorry state. The roof was about to fall off and the walls had weakened. As a man, he spent most of his time taking local brew. Life was unbearable,” Nalumu says.

After staying there for three days, she realised this was no place to raise her children and decided to move to neighbouring Naminya village.

Fresh start, old baggage
Nalumu had to look for a house even when she had no penny to her name. One man gave her a room as she looked around for money to pay him.

“When I narrated my ordeal to area residents, they came to my rescue. Some would give me milk, food while others would help me to babysit,” Nalumu says, adding that after sometime, she got odd jobs such as washing clothes for Shs1,000 and Shs2,000.”

This gave her relief as she was able to feed her brood. Nalumu says from the day Kyeyune walked out on her in hospital, she has never seen him again.

But as luck would have it, Nalumu’s plight was highlighted in the media, prompting Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) to come to her rescue.

The MPs led by the UWOPA chairperson Monicah Amoding recently visited Nalumu and donated to her an assortment of goods that included foodstuffs, mattresses, clothes and Shs500,000 as start –up capital for an income-generating business.

Amoding says Nalumu is among the many teenage girls that are suffering due to teenage pregnancies and therefore need support.

Worrying trend
“Uganda’s rate of teenage pregnancies is among the highest in the world. Twenty four per cent of all female teenagers are either pregnant or have given birth already,” says Amoding who is also the Kumi woman MP.

The Buikwe District woman MP Judith Babirye says the district is grappling with high numbers of teenage pregnancies because most teenage girls have limited access to sanitary pads.

“Because many girls lack sanitary pads to use during their periods, they tend to skip school and by so doing end up being impregnated. As MPs, we have launched a campaign aimed at curbing the increasing teenage pregnancies,” Babirye says.

Nalumu, who commended the MPs for the donation, said she would use the money to start a charcoal business with hope that this would enable her to get some income to fend for her children.
However, she adds, “It is still a long journey for me to raise three children into responsible citizens”