Royce is only 20, but her painful story can be easily seen in her face. Forcibly married at 15, the young Zambian had the courage to leave her husband and today has returned to school while taking care of her child and preventing other girls from becoming child brides.
“My father died shortly after my birth, and I lost my mother a few years later. So I was living with my aunt. At first she took good care of me. But when I became a teenager, she decided to stop everything and no longer pay for school. She told me that I would have to dig up my mother to pay my way. It was becoming harder for me. At that time it was decided that I should get married.”
Royce’s aunt started looking for a man for her 15 year old niece. After finding a candidate, she gathered the women of the neighborhood together so they could take Royce to his home. Royce had never met the man.
“I did not want him. I refused to sleep with him. I did not know what to do or what was going to happen,” she says. “He then went to the village women to complain about my behavior. They told me I could not refuse him, that I was a woman and I had to do what my husband asked of me.”
Refusing the advances of her husband, Royce escaped and return to her aunt. Her husband followed her and demanded that her aunt sent Royce back to his home.
“The women took me back to him again. I could not refuse this time. I had to sleep with him, but I did not like him. I felt terribly wrong with him. Life was not any better than at my aunts. He was never there, he slept with other women and never brought any money home.”
Royce quickly fell pregnant and had a daughter. But after four years of marriage, she had the strength to leave her husband.
“I do not want a man. Although there are many who are interested, I know how difficult things can be. I do not want to relive that.”
Now alone with her daughter, Royce lives with her sister. Despite her difficult circumstances, Royce found the strength to fight back and returned to school after years of absence. She has become one of the best students in her class and is school president allowing her voice to be heard and respected by all.
Royce shares her story with other girls as a young advocator working alongside Plan International. In school and outside of it, she talks to young people, encouraging them to stay in school, not get married too quickly and defend their rights.
Academically gifted and courageous, Royce will soon join her local high school. She is determined to study for as long as possible and one day hopes to work for the Zambian government so she can ensure that laws are enforced to prevent girls from being married off early.
© Content Credits: Plan International
