Ralaizazarohavana Rindra Pauline

My name is Rindra. I’m 34 years old. My husband’s name is Leva. I have two daughters. I took some training on management in 2013. I was nine years old when I was in grade 3. At that time, my grandmother died, and yet she was the only one person who had helped my mother in taking care of my three siblings and me. I was then sent to Antananarivo to work as a maid, and the worst is that I worked for a soldier there.

Therefore, I had to get up very early to prepare the breakfast on time; when I didn’t, I left home at 2 a.m. to go to Tanjombato to queue for buying cassava, which we cooked and sold to students. It is bright when I came home from buying the cassava. I went and fetched water, cooked the cassava, did the washing, and so on and so forth. If anything was wrong, the lady beat me. The man was sad about those beatings, so, one day, as if I was going to buy cassava, he took me from home and brought me to his parents where I stayed from that time on.

I was then becoming a young girl, and some men came to ask the couple for my hand, because they are the kind of parents who took me in charge. But they said they were not selling “black bags”, and “the children of ashes will produce ashes”. But there’s time for everything. I left them in 2002, and I was looking for a house to stay. I found one in Belo, so I left. But when our mother found that I was autonomous and lived by myself, she sent my six younger siblings to stay with me. Taking them in charge was a burden for me, so I sent two of them back to my mother, and kept only four. Consequently, if someone would like to marry me, he was reluctant because I had many children on my charge. One of my cousins took the eldest of my young brothers. One of my sisters became an unmarried mother so she went back home at my mother’s. So, there were three of us left in Morondava. When I was twenty three, I had decided to get married, and to start a new life from that time. At the beginning, my husband was a very kind and friendly person, but when I got pregnant and about to give birth, he started to show his real traits: he was womanizing and he beat me. For twelve years, my tears had been the water I used to drink.

I heard on the radio that there were centers which fight against woman and child abuse, so I then went to one of these. So, I could follow some training since 2013 up to now. That training I took helps me to manage my life, especially when talking about money. Before the training, no one gave me any advice, but now I don’t lose my heart and I hope that the offspring that God offered to me will have a bright future, and they won’t live the same life that made me cry and sometimes made me blame God because my burden was so heavy. But I now realize that He always helps and encourages me in whatever I go through. So, for you who are now reading my story, if you are still an unmarried woman, ask from God the appropriate spouse for you at the right time. And whatever happens, remember that He helps you. And if you are married and especially if you have children, think of the future of your children, your life is done.

If you are a man, make a good choice, because marriage is not a game. And you do not change a spouse as you change clothes. God has created marriage, so it is sacred.