My name is Rose, I am 25 years old and come from akwa ibom state, Nigeria. I come from a family of six and I am the first child, born out of wedlock. My mother got pregnant for her first lover but could not tie the knot with him because of tribal and cultural differences. My father took ill and died a mysterious death and because of this my mother eventually got married again to her tribesman, they had six children together besides me.

My mother adored me because I was her firstborn child, but my stepfather despised me because he thought I was a bastard. Because of the limitations placed on women by our society and tradition, I was treated harshly on numerous occasions because of this stereotype, and my mother could do little about it. My stepfather was so impoverished that he couldn't afford to send any of his children to school, let alone myself, whom he regarded a piece of scum and the least important member of the family. Growing up, I received the most heinous treatment imaginable. He forced me to do all the housework and work on the form, while his children ran about and did nothing. He didn't let me eat much, and even when I did, it wasn't enough. Every night, I cried because I didn't know what I had done wrong to him and because my own mother stood by and watched the injustice be done to me.

I decided to escape the house because I couldn't stand it any longer, and my stepfather's sister, with whom I had a close relationship, promised to take me to a better place where I could live in peace and be like my peers. I took her offer secretly and ran away from the house to the location where she promised to pick me up since I was yearning to leave the house for the supposedly better place. The offer was too good to pass up. Because of all the horrible things that happened to me as a child, I couldn't say no.

She eventually brought me to a faraway location, just outside of Nigeria's borders, in Cotonou, and after a few months with her, she sought to sell me into prostitution for her own gains. I refused her offer to sell my body for money, for her gains, and as a result, she began to mistreat me, and I began to suffer again, just as I had in my stepfather's house. I ran away from her house, this time with no money and no means of survival. For several months, I lived on the streets of Cotonou, where I met a Nigerian man who was helpful to me, and we got along well. He offered me accommodation, peace and took away the painful memories I had as a child and adult; I finally had a baby girl with him, and we lived together for 2 years before I learned one afternoon that he had died while at work. That night I cried bitterly and almost took my life because I had nowhere to go and no one to call once again. When the rent in his one room apartment, where we lived together expired, i returned to Nigeria with my daughter with the money I saved while I was together with him, before his death and proceeds from sale of household items that held value and took refuge in an unfinished building in Lagos. There, I raised my daughter and eventually met my second partner, with whom I had another girl. We battled the hard and harsh times together moving from one slum to the next. He eventually left me with our child in a bid to escape fatherly duties. Once again, I was on my own, fending for my 2 children, begging from one place to another, doing all sort of menial jobs and looking for a way out of the suffering life subjected me and my daughters to.

Our circumstances are appalling since we are continually drenched, at the mercy of touts, criminals, rapists, snakes, street vices and plagued by mosquitoes, other harmful insects, and life threatning diseases. We hardly make enough money to eat, let alone save anything. My first daughter is very brilliant, and it bothers me that she might go through what I suffered in life. I want to provide a better life for my children by giving them good education so that they would have a fighting chance, to grow above our current circumstance in the future.

Please have mercy on us and help us with whatever you can, I am pleading with you from the bottom of my heart to look upon me and my daugthers with Mercy and compassion. Whatever monies donated, will be used judiciously to raise the living standard of my family, and I. Thank you and remain blessed as you lend a helping hand with your donations.