FROM GRASS TO GRACE Salimatu Sinneh Koroma SLTU (Sierra Leone Teachers Union)
My story is about Isatu who is my contemporary. She was also born in the same town and the same street. This girl was very clever in school and everybody in the community wanted to be her parents. At age fourteen Isatu became pregnant and this surprised everyone in our community. Most of her companions (age mates) advised her to mix some herbs which would terminate the pregnancy but she refused. Even her aunts, one was a sister and the other a nurse, both working at the Government hospital wanted her to have an abortion. One day they took her to the hospital to terminate the pregnancy. Isatu ran away from the hospital because she was afraid to lose her life. She was stigmatized and provoked by people she passed by on the street when going to the hospital for treatment. She was ashamed, especially when she saw her class mates with their uniforms, going to school. She was encouraged by some friends, not to lose hope. Months passed by and she fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. Isatu was a sickle cells patient. So, the doctor advised she should be in the hospital until her baby was born. On hearing that Isatu had been admitted to the hospital, people from the community and some students, especially her form three mates, visited the hospital frequently. Their visits were not in a form of sympathising but to provoke her.
21
