Scholarship restores Chelangat’s dream after forced marriage at 14

Rose Bela Chelangat still struggles with her childhood trauma of being forced into early marriage, a practice that has existed for many decades among the Pokot of Amudat District.

Chelangat is among hundreds of girls whose dream of being in school had been shattered by the community belief that girls are a source of wealth, which normally comes in the form of dowry.

Her lifetime trauma started in 2020 when a group of men waylaid her on her way from the community well, allegedly on the instructions of her father.

A rich man is said to have secretly paid 52 cows to Chelangat’s father in return for her hand in marriage.

She was 14 at the time and in her Primary Seven vacation.

Chelangat says she conceived for the man she barely loved since she wanted to be at school.

The marriage was also consummated against the will of her mother, Ms Chebokalinga Mesane, which caused friction with her husband.

"Daddy divorced my mother, and that in disguise was a blessing for me to escape from this forced marriage," she says.

"I gave birth after I escaped from the husband’s home to join mummy at their home where she was now staying with her brothers and other relatives, but the trauma was hard to bear and the suffering had cropped in for a child mother who was only 15 years," adds Chelangat.

While with her mother at their ancestral home in Loroo Sub-county, a Good Samaritan from the National Association of Women Organisation in Uganda (NAWOU) got to know of her plight and reported to police.

"At that time, my father declined police summons and went into hiding for fear of returning the 52 heads of cattle, it took a settlement out of the police that the animals were driven back [to the rich man]," adds Chelangat.

Her mother then took her to Napak District, where she enrolled in Senior One at Kangole Girls SS in 2022, despite not knowing where the school fees would come from.

"My baby was barely 12 months, my mother was determined to have me at school, she paid half fees and returned to nurse after the baby," Chelangat says.

As luck would have it, Chelangat says at the time, because of the Covid-19 effects, most of the girls who had been enrolled under the Irish Aid scholarship never returned to school since most had conceived during the lockdown.

The now 19-year-old says scholarship vacancies were advertised.

"I applied through the recommendation of people who helped me get out of forced marriage, thanks to the sisters at Kangole Girls SS who considered my application based on my plight," she says.

"I am now happy at school with a bigger dream of becoming a medical worker in future," adds Chelangat, who is now in Senior Three.

Kevin Lokkes, a Senior Five student at Kangole Girls SS, who is a beneficiary of the same scholarship scheme, says Chelangat is still struggling to overcome her past trauma, but says the school has employed counsellors to support many girls with a similar predicament.