Mother of 10 shares about her load

By Ulimasao Fata 30 November 2017, 12:00AM

If you think you have too much on your shoulders, here is the everyday life of a mother of 10.

Meet Akenese Ieremia; 45 years of age from the village of Nu’u Fou. 

Mrs. Ieremia is also a grandmother and she was in her daily routine when the Village Voice team met her at her home yesterday afternoon.

She said life was really tough for her, given she doesn’t have a job to support her whole family.

“I am mother of 10 children with two of my children now in New Zealand; seven of them are boys and three girls,” Mrs. Ieremia said.

“Life here with us is really hard because I have to feed my children and support them, but then I don’t have a job to earn money to support all of them.

“The only person who is providing for our family is my eldest son who is currently working at one of the companies and that’s basically it.”

Mrs. Ieremia mentioned that sometimes they get help from the shop opposite their house especially when they don’t have money.

“The opposite shop there allows us to get stuff during the week but it cannot exceed more than $30.

“So by the weekend, when my son gets paid, we would be able to pay the amount we owe to the shop during the week.”

Mrs. Ieremia said they only had boiled bananas with roasted eggplant yesterday.

“We really couldn’t afford to have tea and bread this morning (yesterday) so I just got us boiled bananas and roasted eggplant for today (yesterday).”

Mrs. Ieremia said her eldest son’s wife and two children also lived with them.

“Like I said, my eldest son is our sole provider here in our house and it makes it harder too because he is also providing for his small family as well.”

Mrs. Ieremia said her family was struggling and she was hoping for assistance from the public.

“We are struggling so badly in terms of food, money and clothing for my children here so that is why I really need a job to support my family.”

By Ulimasao Fata 30 November 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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