“Child marriage was very challenging”
Geoffrey Asiku’s story
Geoffrey Asiku, a 30-year-old father of five children stares in space. He looks exhausted, it is 2 pm but he still has a lot of work lined up for the day. He is taking a break before he embarks on another activity – brick laying after a hectic morning in the garden. He does all this to look after his family of six “I am now used to the laborious work.”
When he lost his parents at the age of 16 while in primary six, due to lack of school fees, Asiku had to drop out of school because he couldn’t afford scholastic materials and other expenses. He opted for marriage but didn’t know how difficult this journey would be. After the arrival of the first baby, Asiku was overwhelmed by the responsibility that he tried to go back to school but it was late. “There were many challenges,” Asiku shares while shaking his head.
While in many communities majority of the children who marry, often against their will are girls, boys too are affected. Child marriage did not only rob Asiku of his childhood, he is also trapped in poverty with his children at risk of intergenerational poverty.
At only seventeen, with a wife and baby, Asiku was suddenly exposed to several responsibilities. He was now a husband, a father and had to look after his new family. They all looked up to him, something he regrets to date.
“If I could do things differently, I would have stayed in school, completed and lived a better life,’”
Ever since he married, Asiku’s life has been characterized by manual and hard labour. He grows food stuffs like maize, groundnuts, sorghum, sweet potatoes and cassava for sale and gets some little money to take care of his family. Farming has been his life ever since the first baby came. “The family needs are enormous and the money I get from the sales is still not enough.” With a good harvest, he will earn 60,000 Uganda shillings (16 USD) from a sack of groundnuts. “Despite the hardships, I will toil to support my children stay in school. I don’t want them to experience the same difficulties that I have gone through.”
Asiku liked school and he dreamt of becoming a civil engineer in charge of constructing houses. “I would have been able to network and share ideas with educated people. I believe I wouldn’t be where I am today.” Unfortunately, his dream is no more.
Today, Asiku admires his peers with whom he studied. Some are working at the district headquarters, others as teachers and some engineers.” He still communicates with them and when he has no work, he requests them for casual work, something he dislikes but has no choice because he needs the money.
“As I toil in the farm, my peers are paid a monthly salary, something you get only if you have a job and are educated. Had I studied, I would be like my peers. However, I can’t turn the clock back, I spoilt my chances but I will now focus on looking after my children so that they can change the state of my family.”
The prevalence of child marriage in Asiku’s district, Yumbe is very high, mainly affecting girls – fifty per cent of the girls are at risk of getting married young. As such, World Vision with support from UNICEF and funding from the Netherlands Government is implementing the End Child Marriage campaign.’ The campaign implemented in Arua, Yumbe and Adjumani districts is the reason parents and caretakers like Asiku know the benefits of keeping children in school and not marrying them off young. They have committed to ending the preventing and ending early and child marriages in their homes and communities by signing pledge cards.
With his childhood experience, Asiku did not think twice when asked to sign the pledge card. Did he know what he committed to when he signed it? His answer is yes. “I committed to do whatever it takes to provide my children – both boys and girls, with an education. That way, they will not be lured into marriage. I also talk to them all the time about the dangers of child marriage and the importance of continuing with education.” Asiku’s pledge card hangs on the wall of his house and it is the first thing he sees upon entry, reminding him daily, of the pledge he has made for his children.
