A Story of Faith, Resilience, and the Promise of Education
1. A Campaign Born of Hope
In 2020, the African Union launched the Africa Educates Her Campaign, a bold and compassionate response to the educational crisis faced by millions of girls during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign seeks to bring girls back to school, restore their dignity, and protect their right to education. Mariza’s story stands as a living testimony to this mission.
2. A Child Born into Poverty
Mariza was born in 2010 in Luanda, the capital city of Angola. She came into the world in a family marked by extreme poverty and instability. Her father, Bernardo, is a womanizer who has fathered dozens of unsupported children with different women, leaving behind a trail of abandonment and broken homes.
3. A Mother Carrying Heavy Burdens
Mariza’s mother, Quimbita, lives with mental delays and has no academic background. She works as a cleaner and earns less than 20 USD per month, an amount insufficient to sustain herself, her mother, and five children. Despite her limitations, Quimbita struggles daily to keep her family alive.
4. Abandonment and Injustice
Quimbita was not Bernardo’s first wife, and Mariza and her sisters were not his first children. Several years ago, Bernardo abandoned them in a rented house, choosing instead to live with a new girlfriend. Ironically, he is raising children who are not biologically his, while his own children receive nothing—no care, no support, no protection.
5. Children Without Identity
None of the children were registered with the government. They have no birth certificates and no national identity cards. As a result, they exist outside the system—unseen, unprotected, and undocumented. Their survival depends largely on the goodwill of others.
6. Education Denied
Because of the lack of national identification, Mariza never attended a public school. When rare opportunities to study arose, they were in unsafe and unserious learning environments. Over time, Mariza developed severe academic difficulties. At 15 years old, she could not read or write, yet she claimed to have reached the 5th grade. This raised painful questions: Were her teachers unqualified, or was Mariza unfairly blamed for a system that failed her?
7. A Careful Assessment, A Clear Truth
After a careful academic and psychological evaluation, it was concluded that Mariza has no mental delays and no learning disabilities. What we saw was a teenager suffering from a deep learning gap—missing the foundational knowledge of first, second, and third grade, which is essential for primary education.
8. A Mother’s Sacrifice for a Daughter’s Future
Recognizing her daughter’s potential, Quimbita made a painful but courageous decision. She accepted to entrust Mariza to a more stable and sustainable family, one that could provide better living conditions and support her pursuit of quality education.
9. A New Beginning in School
Through this intervention, Mariza was enrolled in a public school, where she is now attending 4th grade. For her, this opportunity feels like a miracle. She is deeply thankful and feels blessed to receive a chance that thousands of girls only dream of.
10. Voices from a Broken Home
During a recent visit to her biological home, Mariza and her sisters shared their painful story. They spoke openly about hunger, suffering, and the emotional wounds left by their father’s absence. In desperation, they called him, asking him to bring at least food because they were hungry.
11. Slow Progress, Visible Hope
Mariza’s academic progress is closely monitored. Although her improvement is slow, positive changes are clearly visible. Her greatest obstacle remains the lack of foundational knowledge from the early grades, but her determination and resilience shine through every effort she makes.
12. Documentation: The Final Barrier
As Mariza goes on school holidays, a new battle begins. She must pressure her biological parents—especially her father—to register her so she can obtain a birth certificate and national identity card. Without these documents, her educational journey cannot continue.
13. A Father’s Broken Promise
14. The Chosen One
Mariza is not just a girl; she is the chosen one—chosen by resilience, by faith, and by the belief that education can break generational cycles of poverty and neglect. Her story reminds us why the Africa Educates Her Campaign exists and why the fight for girls’ education must continue.
Conclusion
A Call to Justice, Dignity, and Sustainable Change
Mariza’s story is not an isolated tragedy; it is a mirror reflecting systemic failures that directly contradict the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals. Her lived experience speaks powerfully to SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).
Poverty that could be prevented, inhumane living conditions, and denial of access to quality education are not unfortunate accidents—they are violations of fundamental human rights. When a girl is denied identity, education, and protection simply because she was born poor and female, that denial becomes a form of gender-based violence. In this sense, Mariza’s suffering is not only social injustice; it is structural violence inflicted through neglect and indifference.
The actions of Mariza’s father represent a deeply harmful pattern that borders on feminicide by abandonment—impregnating multiple women, leaving them and their children unsupported, undocumented, and exposed to hunger and exclusion. Such behavior destroys lives, traps women and girls in poverty, and perpetuates cycles of dependency and trauma. It must no longer be normalized or excused. Abandonment is violence. Neglect is violence. Silence is violence.
At the same time, this story reveals a critical failure of governance. In Angola, thousands of children remain without birth certificates or national identification, rendering them invisible to the state. This invisibility denies them access to education, healthcare, and legal protection. Governments must urgently strengthen collaboration between hospitals, civil registration offices, and local municipalities to ensure that every child is registered at birth. Where adults fail to maintain valid identification for extended periods, accountability measures and penalties must be enforced, as lack of documentation directly harms children.
In Mariza’s case, both parents lived with expired national IDs for more than a year, directly contributing to her exclusion from education and social services.
Encouragement and advocacy led her mother, Quimbita, to successfully renew her identification in order to legalize her daughters—a significant step toward justice and dignity. Sadly, the same responsibility has not yet been assumed by the father, leaving Mariza’s future still at risk.
As we commemorate the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights Day, Mariza’s journey reminds us that protecting girls requires more than words—it demands action, accountability, and systemic reform. Educating a girl is not charity; it is a human right. Registering a child is not optional; it is a state obligation. Holding parents accountable is not punishment; it is justice.
Mariza stands today as a symbol of resilience and hope—but she should not have had to fight this hard to simply exist. Her story calls on us to act, so that no girl is ever again forced to beg for identity, education, or dignity. Only then can we truly say we are leaving no one behind.
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