“My mom was not there for me, she would never support me with my homework and so. She would say her man come first, and I just go out there to find love. I just wanted love, but it was not love I find…,” she trailed off and looked at the young boy who sat on a chair next to her sucking feverishly on the bottle in his tiny hand.
It was obvious that she loved the little boy, but I knew what she meant when she said she did not find love. She is 19 and the mother of a son who was born when she was just 16. She became pregnant at age 15 and the father of the child was 26.
I met her at the office of the Women Across Differences (WAD) office and she agreed to speak after being assured that she will remain anonymous. She is the youngest of her mother’s three children and she is only now developing a relationship with her father, who was absent from the home setting since she was a child.