At 16, Mariam suffered a marriage arranged by her family following the death of her father. "When I left home, newly married, I was only a child who was afraid." Mariam left her country, Sierra Leone, to follow her husband who wanted to leave for Mauritania. After 16 years, she decided to go back in Sierra Leone with her two daughters.
"When I wake up in the morning I prepare myself like an African queen so that my daughters are proud of me, it is important that they see me strong and present for her". Mariam has remained proud and independent despite her difficult migratory journey.
At 16, Mariam suffered a marriage arranged by her family following the death of her father. "When I left home, newly married, I was only a child who was afraid." Mariam left her country, Sierra Leone, to follow her husband who wanted to leave for Mauritania. Now 32, she has lived much of her life away from home. Her husband left her with their two girls to go to Europe, seeing no other solutions to support their families after several difficult years. Mariam has never heard from him since. Alone, in a foreign country and little surrounded, she has raised her daughters with dignity thanks to his great strength of character.
"I arrived in Mauritania with all my papers in order. Unfortunately one day, I lost my identity card and I did not have enough money to have it redone, so I became irregular. I lived in worry, I was afraid to meet the police, I was afraid of being harassed, I was afraid for my daughters.” Mariam has lived several years with the daily anxiety of being expelled. These children have not been educated because these girls do not have a birth certificate or identity card. They have never been registered in the Mauritanian National Civil Status System. "Now, in Sierra Leone, I am free. I can walk in the street without fear, no one can stop or expel me, I am at home and my daughters have a status."
Mariam was selling Bissap on the beach in Mauritania, determined and combative, she always found a solution to feed her children and take care of them. "Nobody could pay my school fees, I did not really go to school. For me it is very important that my daughters can have access to an education." Mariam has great abilities. She has not had the chance to study, but speaks several languages fluently. "I'd like to know how to read and write, it's my dream. Sometimes I'm lost, I do not know how things work but I'm strong, I fight. I had a lot of hard times but when I stand in front of my mirror I have to be a proud woman and show it to my children."
Mariam benefited from the IOM-funded reintegration program funded by the European Union. She can now provide for her two daughters thanks to the public transport activity she has developed in Sierra Leone. She owns a motorcycle taxi and a motor tricycle. Her children go to school, eat every day and live in a healthy environment.
After having lived abroad for a long time, many testify to the difficulty of reintegrating into their country of origin. Mariam's familiar references have evolved, she gradually regained a place in a society "which was sometimes unknown to her" and surrounded herself. She did not feel very "in her place" in Mauritania, yet she learned to speak French and knows other local languages but cultural and traditional barriers have been a difficulty for her integration. "Now I am rebuilding myself, I have a family here in Sierra Leone. I have support, we stand together."
On the basis of her migratory experience, Mariam is now sensitizing her community. "I tell my story to everyone, every day I share my story and I inform people. I hear a lot of stories about migration, the money it takes to leave, huge sums that could be invested here in our country."
Mariam is proud to have always respected her values and become an independent mother and a woman entrepreneur. For her, the role and place of women in society are very important. "I can not help but be afraid for the future of my daughters. I want them to succeed and their lives to be milder than mine. I do not wish them my way" Mariam wants these children to have the choice to marry or not, she wants these girls to marry a person they love and that they are happy but especially safe.
"I did not fall into smuggling networks, nobody used me for money. I have been asked many times by men but I always refused because I knew that my destiny was to use my ideas, my brain and my strength of character to get money not my body. As she points out, many women have this same type of proposal, and sometimes they are strongly advised to leave for work. But it's not really a job, it's human trafficking. These people will be used to enrich a smuggling network. Their bodies will be used to make money,” Mariam explains with conviction. She recalls the memory of her father's words that taught her to never agree to use her body to survive, to always respect herself and to use her intellectual abilities to develop projects. "It's my turn to convey this message now. As a human being we have rights, I know it even if I have not been to school, I know I have the right to say no” Mariam concludes.