肯尼亞9歲女童被父母包辦婚姻與78歲老人結婚

A girl in Kenya who was forced to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather when she was only nine years old has been freed after four years of hell.

肯尼亞一名九歲女孩被迫嫁給祖父級男子。四年後，該女孩成功逃跑。

Younis, 13, who is part of the Samburu tribe, was married off by her parents in accordance to tribal custom, which also includes female genital mutilation and offering girls to male relatives for sex. She was forced to live with the 78-year-old man for four years until she escaped and walked barefoot to a boarding school for girls called the Samburu Girls Foundation.

尤尼斯今年13歲，在肯尼亞桑布魯部落長大。根據部落習俗，她的父母幫她包辦婚姻。其中還包括進行女子割禮，同家族中的男性同房。她被迫與自己78歲的丈夫生活了四年。之後，她赤腳逃到了桑布魯女孩基金會的寄宿學校。

Explaining her harrowing and heartbreaking tale, Younis told CNN: 'When I was about nine years old, my father married me off to an old man who was 78 years old' 'He told me that I will be a wife but I was just innocent, I wanted to come to school. But that man wanted me to be a third wife. I told him, I will not be your wife, and he caned me.'

尤尼斯向CNN記者講述了自己令人唏噓的經歷：“當我9歲的時候，我的父親把我嫁給了一個78歲的男人。” “他告訴我，我將會成爲他的妻子。但是我還小，我只想去學校讀書。但是那個男人讓我做他的妻子，我說我不願意，他就用柺杖打我。”

Luckily for Younis and around 200 other girls across Kenya, the Samburu Girls Foundation offered her a way out.

幸運的是，尤尼斯和其他200名肯尼亞女孩都在桑布魯女孩基金會的幫助下順利逃脫。

She said: 'I heard that there is a woman who helps children. 'I came from Baragoi barefoot, I didn't even have shoes that day. I came to Maralal. Kulea took me to the children's office, she rescued me.'

她說：“我聽說這裏的女人們可以幫助我們.我赤腳從家裏走來，我那天都沒有穿鞋。我找到了馬拉拉爾，庫拉爾把我帶到了辦公室，她解救了我。”

Run by Josephine Kulea, the foundation takes in girls who have been disowned by their families and helps them deal with the trauma of forced genital mutilation or any other horrific events they have suffered.

基金會的創始人約瑟芬庫·拉爾收留這些被家庭遺棄的女孩子們，幫她們治療割禮留下的心理創傷和其他陰影。

Josephine, who is also part of the Samburu tribe, said: 'I realised we are the only ones doing FGM, female genital mutilation, the other communities are not doing it.

約瑟芬也是桑布魯部落的人，她說：“我意識到我們是唯一在做女子基金的人，我們幫助女孩在割禮後撫平她們的陰影，再沒有第二家像我們這樣的羣體了。”

'I came to realise that there are things that are not right and I need to make a difference, that's how I started rescuing girls.'

'我認識到有些事是錯誤的，我必須要改變。之後我就開始幫助這些女孩子們。'

Early marriage is illegal in Kenya but Josephine explained that people within the Samburu community were not pleased that she was rescuing girls from forced unions.

在肯尼亞，早婚是違法的。但是亞瑟分解釋說，在桑布魯地區，從包辦婚姻中救出這些女孩是不被認可的。

She said: 'Growing up from this community, everyone looks at me like, 'You should be like us, you should not be fighting us. 'It's a risk for me but I still give it a go.'

她說：'在這種羣體中長大，所有人都覺得我應該像他們一樣，而不是對抗他們。' '這對於我來說是一場冒險，但是我必須要嘗試。'

While Younis' story is shocking unfortunately it is not a rare one. Josephine's first rescue was one that involved members of her own family.

尤尼斯的故事雖然震驚，但並不是獨一份。約瑟芬早期曾救出自己的兩個表妹。

She said: 'My first rescue was my two cousins. One was 10 years old and she was the one getting married; most of the time in my community, when the girl is getting married young, that is when they undergo female circumcision.

她說，我的第一次救援就是我的兩個妹妹。一個才10歲，就要結婚了。大部分情況下，如果一個女孩接受了割禮，那麼她就要結婚了。

'I was alerted that she was going to get married, so I went and rescued her, and after I rescued her I took her to school. 'Two days later I get a call and I'm told there was a wedding in that village, and I'm like, 'I have the girl, so who got married?' They said it was the little sister who was seven years old - they replaced her because the cows were here and any girl had to go.'

'所以，我覺察到她可能要結婚了。所以我把她就出來，帶到了學校。' '兩天後，我聽說村裏要舉行婚禮。我想我把女孩都帶走了，你跟誰結婚呢？結果發現是我另外一個7歲的表妹。他們把她作爲替補，原因是牛都收了，隨便嫁一個女兒就行。'

Beading is also another tribal custom Kulea and her team are fighting to rescue girls from.

串珠子是另一個約瑟芬不能接受的部落習俗，他們要把女孩從這個習俗中解放出來。

The tradition involves girls being bought by members of the same clan for sex before they are married. The more beads a girl has around her neck the more it will cost the man.

這個傳統是在女孩子結婚之前可以賣給同族的男性進行同房，女孩子脖子上的珠子越多，價格越貴。

Josephine explained how she was in contact with worried Samburu mothers who want to protect their daughters from being beaded, one of whom was only seven years old.

約瑟芬解釋道，之前一位桑布魯母親想找她幫忙，保護自己7歲的女兒免受這種痛苦。

Despite so much suffering, Josephine is optimistic about the future, she said: ' There is hope. And I know when we take more kids to school in future there will be a difference in my community.'

儘管諸多波折，但是約瑟芬始終樂觀。她說：“希望是有的，只要部落中有更多的孩子去上學，就會有很大改變。”