A CRY FOR HELP
For Duduzile Petros, a mother of eight from Thamashanga, a stone’s throw away from Francistown, raising children has become unbearable. Thus the 45-year-old unemployed single mother is not even ashamed to ask for help. She gets on by selling snacks, but this does not bring in enough for the nine of them.
A Good Samaritan has accommodated her and the children without charge in a two-roomed house in Tati Siding while away working in another town. But Petros is afraid that she may find herself homeless once the landlord returns. Her only responsibility is to care for the yard.
Petros has three pairs of twins and two singletons. The first born is now 25, also unemployed, the second-born are 19-year-old twins, then 17-year-old twins, an 11-year-old and six-year-old twins. The fathers of all her children have disappeared into oblivion.
What gives her comfort right now is that one pair of her twins is currently doing Form 4 in a local boarding school and she does not need to worry about what they eat during school terms.
Petros lost both parents and her remaining family members are not willing to assist her. Since being diagnosed with a backbone problem, it has been difficult to find a job that she can do with her condition.
"I have been warned at the hospital not to do difficult jobs and this limits me from searching for jobs to provide for these kids,“ Petros said in an ailing voice.
According to Pedros, multiples run in her maternal side of the family, with her own late mother being a twin.
A Good Samaritan has accommodated her and the children without charge in a two-roomed house in Tati Siding while away working in another town. But Petros is afraid that she may find herself homeless once the landlord returns. Her only responsibility is to care for the yard.
Petros has three pairs of twins and two singletons. The first born is now 25, also unemployed, the second-born are 19-year-old twins, then 17-year-old twins, an 11-year-old and six-year-old twins. The fathers of all her children have disappeared into oblivion.
What gives her comfort right now is that one pair of her twins is currently doing Form 4 in a local boarding school and she does not need to worry about what they eat during school terms.
Petros lost both parents and her remaining family members are not willing to assist her. Since being diagnosed with a backbone problem, it has been difficult to find a job that she can do with her condition.
"I have been warned at the hospital not to do difficult jobs and this limits me from searching for jobs to provide for these kids,“ Petros said in an ailing voice.
According to Pedros, multiples run in her maternal side of the family, with her own late mother being a twin.
