By hawking iced sachet water daily on major roads in oil-rich Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, beautiful 23-year-old Miss Yeyè Joy Able strives to fend for her four siblings and her three-year-old daugher — a product of rape.
Joy hails from Obini-Nkiken Agbonchia of Eleme-speaking tribe of Rivers State. Her parents gave birth to five of them — four boys and herself as the only daughter, the last being 10 years old.
Saturday Tribune ran into Joy recently at Eleme in Port Harcourt, aggressively hawking sachet water as she dragged her young child along.
According to her, granting our correspondent a chat in the open would be at the risk of her life, her baby’s and her siblings’. Some relatives of her late dad, she said, would make life unbearable for them if they caught her engaging a journalist. She claimed that her father’s relatives hardly want to see them succeed in life.
“I have a few relatives of my father living around our house. They must not see me granting you an interview because it appears they don’t want our progress,” she said.
Narrating her ordeal in a secluded area, barely literate Joy, in pidgin English, explained how she started hawking sachet water with a baby for survival.
“My father could not walk, but he seewed clothes. He was a tailor, but a cripple. We could hardly feed. We live at Eleme in Port Harcourt.
“My mum used to go out for daily odd jobs to bring home food for us. But she was sorrowful, stripped of her self-esteem, as my dad usually beat the hell out of her. Things weren’t just okay,” she recollected.
Joy was on and off elementary school, but eventually bagged her primary school leaving certificate, she claimed. Being relatively mature and aware of her environment, she went into the streets for odd jobs to help her parents. But then, as expected, she fell into the hands of one of the predators in the street.
She said: “When I could begin to fend for myself, I started doing odd jobs to survive too. A particular man from Akwa Ibom who saw me suffering promised to help me. In the process, he raped me. He took advantage of my condition. I was ignorant.
“I eventually became pregnant for him. He didn’t take care of me. He ran to the village. When I gave birth, he didn’t pay the hospital bill. He could not be reached. One of my uncles made the payment.
“I had to begin to hawk sachet water to survive. It was difficult for me to feed with my baby.”
Earlier, Joy, who’s light-complexioned, had lost her dad to the cold hands of death. A year after in 2017, when his mourning was over, her mom eloped with a lover and abandoned the children to fate till date.
“My dad died about five years ago in May. He was sick. My mom waited to bury and mourn him. In no time, she bolted with another man who was taking care of her. She abandoned us to our fate till date. Do I blame her? She had suffered and must survive and live her life.
“I have four siblings. We still live together. None of us could go to school. I didn’t go beyond primary six.
“I’m 23 years old now. Of course, I’m not married. My mum had abandoned us after my dad died. My daughter is three years old.”
The situation with Joy and her siblings would have been worse but for the room and parlour accommodation their late father left behind for them. Notwithstanding, the boys, who should ordinarily be in school, are now street boys as they’re used by different people for all kinds of odd jobs for survival.
“We live in a room and parlour in our family house. My elder brother, who’s the eldest child, is now learning mechanic. The other three, who are also boys, do odd jobs around like helping people to wash plates, clean the house, run errands, wash cars, and the like.
“I sell about four or five bags of sachet water daily. Two sachets go for N50 while one goes for N30. I buy a bag for N350.
“Besides pure water, I sell other chops like ponmo stew in this plastic here for my survival and that of my siblings. You know things are hard. Nigeria is hard on we the poor. Nigeria doesn’t want the poor to breathe again. They’re suffocating us.
“I also join people to fry garri to be paid for our feeding. I also fetch firewood to sell for garri producers. But often I was arrested for stealing firewood,” she lamented.
Amid the grim situation surrounding Joy and her siblings, she’s still hopeful of a new beginning if timely help comes her way.
“I can learn a trade if I find help for the sake of my future, my siblings and that of my baby. Our lives are wasting away. My siblings are not going to school.
“The last boy is 10, yet, no school. We have no one whom we look up to. We live in misery. The society is cruel. All they do is take advantage of us.
“They said Rivers State is wealthy. But here at Eleme we live in squalor. We’re suffering. My fear is how my siblings will not eventually turn vagabonds to haunt the very society that doesn’t know we exist.
“Shouldn’t there be another opportunity for orphans like us to breathe? Should the death of our dad and the neglect of our mom put paid to our destiny?
“We heard recently that government is giving out palliative to cushion the effect of the hardship in the land, but we the real suffering masses haven’t sighted any palliative.
“I and my siblings need help. We want to break the cycle of poverty and suffering in our family. If my siblings can’t go to school, they can be helped to learn a trade. Likewise me. But will your interview turn our lives around for good,” teary Joy asked rhetorically.
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