Helena

age 25, married at 15 in the ivory coast

When civil unrest in Liberia escalated, Helena and her mother abandoned their farm, fled their native country on foot, and settled into a refugee camp in the Ivory Coast.

Kayee, nine years older than Helena, was already living in the camp with his mother and infant son, Washington, when Helena and her mother arrived.

Helena never noticed Kayee. But Kayee’s mother noticed the young Helena. “[She] saw me and said, ‘I want you to be my son’s wife.’ I feared it at first. I said I don’t know your son’s ways. How am I going to get married to him? She said, you’ll get to know him. You’ll get used to him.”

So at 15, Helena became wife to Kayee—and instant mother to baby Washington. They have been together since 1994, and now have a three-year-old daughter, Decountee.

Helena understands why her mother arranged for her marriage and expresses no regrets. “I did not want to be on the streets and he protected me…I thought my life would be just as it is now. This is the life God gives me.”

But when she speaks of her daughter, she has high hopes for a different future. “I didn’t have a chance to go to primary school. Decountee will lead another life with school. She will do it. Decountee will go to college because I know nothing. I know nothing, so she’s going to know something.”