Abandoned with seven children, this woman ekes out a living the hard way

Photo story By Femi Ipaye

She cannot specify her exact age. But what is clear is that Zainab Danjuma, a mother of seven, the last two of which are twins, have gone through a lot in life.

Now surviving by engaging in farming with her twins strapped to her bodies, Zainab says she was abandoned by her husband in 2014.

At that time, she was heavily pregnant with Taiba and Hazanatu, the twins who now shares the daily chores of farming with her.

Typical of many Nigerian women, Zainab shoulders her burden alone in the absence of her better half.

She was able to build a one-room structure at Nitel village along Clinton Drive, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Road, Abuja which is about 1km away from the toll gate.

After she was abandoned by her husband with the children, she then moved into her one-room mud house along with her seven children.

Though the barely literate Bassa woman claims her first child is 20 years old, he is still living with her.

Zainab says she was formerly selling food stuff in that community until she ran out of capital to continue as a result of bad debts.

Not one to be deterred, Zainab then looked for a piece of land along the Airport Road not too far from the house to farm in order to feed her children.

She does not make enough from the small scale farming to provide formal education for all the children, hence only two of them are presently school.

Zainab, who converted from Christianity to Islam because of her runaway husband, is staying strong for herself and her children, while praying for a helper to come along.

[URIS id=27797]

1 COMMENT