Jan 26, 2022
By: Bárbara Bravo

The look of Rukia

We met in one of the poorest slums in Arusha. He lived in a corral of mud huts.

This is Rukia, she was 28 years old, when we met for the first time she was pregnant and her husband abandoned her and their other three children: Carosi, Gaspar and Martha. Their house was a room with a bunk bed for the four of them, in unsanitary conditions.

In addition, she was in delicate health due to being in the final stretch of her pregnancy and malnutrition. I owed months of rent, no job and nothing to eat.

His gaze conveyed sadness, helplessness, loneliness…

Her luck changed, that day I was not alone. I was with my great friend Talitta Vignoto, whom I admire deeply, from Habari Mundo.

She changed his life, paid the outstanding rent payments and found him a home near the Mama Kevina Feeding Program soup kitchen (Kijenge, Arusha).

In this way her children could eat there daily and she was given a job empowering her by the hand of Habari Mundo.

It is a female empowerment project in which women make different products, from scrunchies to bags, with the kitenge (traditional African fabric) and with its benefits they are helped.

Still, Talitta helps him with the rent every month. Now his gaze has life and hope… and you know what?

That Rukia decided to name her baby Talitta 😉 One of the most beautiful stories I’ve been able to live since I arrived in Tanzania.

The look of Rukia

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