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Photo Story – Misses Kamara

Misses Kamara comes from a small village in Guinea. Guinea is one of the poorest countries in Africa. The country is careworn by misgovernment and corruption, 50% of the population are illiterates. Many families are so poor that they are forced to let their children move away to find a job or someone who can take care of them financially.

When Misses Kamara was fourteen years old, she was supposed to get married to a way older man. Misses Kamara doesn’t expect too much from her life – one of many reasons for this disillusion is that she used to work for nine years in another family as a child slave. She had to take care of the household and the children even though she was one herself. And now that she finally escaped from these terrible circumstances she is forced to marry this much older man. She would be supposed to have many children with him and live a life as unhappy as her parents’. She is not willing to accept her fate.

When she was invited by a European NGO-worker to visit her in Europe, she seized her chance and escaped for a second time. She applied for asylum, but got a negative result. Misses Kamara is forced to leave the country. But she delivered a child from a German man, her child got a permission of stay, so now she’s allowed to stay.

She lives in Germany for nine years by now. As a single-parenting mother of two daughters her life isn’t always easy, this is why she is even more happy to search for help at ProAsyl/Flüchtlingsrat Essen e.V. every once in a while. There she gets help and information for her everyday life. Her situation isn’t very comfortable, but she looks forward that her children are going to have an even brighter future one day.

Download photo story [ german, PDF ]

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