Neema Benjamin

She is nineteen years old and almost 9 months pregnant with a baby girl. She doesn’t know her mother, but was raised by her grandmother.  Her Father left and married another woman when she was in standard 4 school and stopped providing for her. Whenever grandmother asked for support from her father to pay school fees and even medical expenses, the stepmom would tell the father she did not need it.  Neema continued with school without her father’s support. She graduated Form 4 and took the National exam. She had good enough grades to go to college and she wanted to study hotel management but the fees were very expensive for her grandmother to pay with her small business. A few months later her Aunt and Uncle found out she was pregnant, they asked her to bring the man responsible for her pregnancy. When the man realized that the family wanted to see him, he changed his number and now cannot be found. So her Aunt and Uncle decided to kick her out of the house when her grandmother was not around and told her that their house was not a place to care for pregnant women. She stayed with a friend for some time until the village chairperson decided she should return to Grandma’s house. So her uncle stopped giving grandma money from her rental house until Neema agreed to leave the house.  She loves her grandma and couldn’t watch her suffer without support so she decided to leave.  Neema said she wished she could just die . She was walking on the road with no destination until someone found her crying and told her about Neema village.  Now at Neema Village she is feeling much better and is excitedly waiting for her baby so she can continue with college.