Mereso was brought to Emusoi last December by the pastor of a parish in Maasailand.  She is the only child of her mother, who wanted her to go to school.  Her father had made arrangements to marry her off.  The parish found a sponsor to help Mereso and she was accepted at Enyorata Secondary School. Mereso attended a few months of prep course and the parish brought her to Emusoi when the school closed for Christmas.  It would be too dangerous for her to go home.  We were preparing her to start school in January but we found out she was pregnant.  The parish was willing to still support her after she delivered.  She had her child but wanted to continue with her studies.

     Meanwhile her mother was chased away from home by her husband and she went to her own family.  She kept in contact with Mereso in secret and sent her money for bus fare if she ever had a chance to run away.  Several weeks ago she left her baby with her mother-in-law and ran away at 5 a.m from the village. She was on our door step at 8am.

      Later that day her husband and his brother came looking for her.  They were ready to take her and bring her to the forest, strip her of her clothes and beat her to within an inch of her life.  This is the traditional punishment for a woman running away from her husband.

     We thought we could bring her to her mother but then we heard the mother had now been chased away from her brother’s homestead because he did not want trouble. Mereso’s in-laws are saying that they will hunt down her mother like a lion.  She is now hiding in another homestead.  We have gone to the social welfare office and we have been given letters to protect Mereso.  She is under age and a school girl so her father can be jailed for marrying her off. Mereso will enter Form I this year.