"The father of my child committed suicide when I was seven months pregnant."

"My name is Rita. A mother of one, his name is Shalmack. I’m 20 years old. Yeah…What I can say about my journey is that I’ve gone through a hard time because after I got pregnant, I told the baby’s father and he didn’t accept it. He denied being the child’s father. After some time, because I was here (in Kibra) and he was upcountry, I heard that he had committed suicide. Perhaps seeing that there was no way out, he took his life? "

"It has been hard to raise this child because sometimes someone does help you - yes - but they gossip about it with other people. Also getting food is not easy. I live with my sister and even she experiences difficulties. My aunt is the person I can say has helped me out, like if I asked her for money for diapers she would give it to me. Now she makes soap, I usually sell it and in return she gives me money for diapers. I currently don't have any other job."

"My father had two wives, and he stayed with the other one after my mother saw that she couldn’t bear it and left to live with her mother. I went to boarding school and that life was not easy. I’d be sent home for school fees and when I got home they’d send me to the farm. I didn’t get to just go to school, it was always that I’d go whenever I was able to. "

There's just a way my mother and I weren’t understanding of each other. And there were also situations where it felt like people from Nairobi saw us who live upcountry as people who had such great problems.

This house - I heard it was available when I was still living upcountry. When I came and stayed here I felt I at least had somewhere to stay and I didn’t go back upcountry again. Since I gave birth, I only went back to take my son so that my mother could see him and then we came back.

It was just that I was trusting. I got pregnant just as I had finished form four, I told him and he denied it so I left him alone. Had I known…honestly my mother had on that day told me not to leave the house. I was stubborn, I went out to a sleepover and then this happened. I got pregnant…Had I known it would end up like this, I wouldn’t have done that.

I’ve been wanting to do a course, to study something that I can practice independently. I want to take a tailoring course and learn how to make clothes. Because my aunt always tells me that I should look for something that will help me because we won’t be with her all our lives. I should find something that will help me to raise this child because I am the mother and the father of this child, I should struggle for him.

"I want to get to live a good life with my child, knowing that I made it possible for us. In the future, I want us to have a good life and not have to worry. Just me and my child…not suffering so much."

photographer's note

Shooting with Rita was an unexpected deeply emotional experience for myself and the team. Her interview started out very honest and real- and set a sombering mood. I was wowed by her resilience and spirit, keeping on surviving despite her age and circumstances. Of all the stories, I still think of hers the most and it touches me deeply to this day.

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