Mohamed Zaina Mukhwana

Zaina Mukhwana was born in 1955, the last of three children. She grew up in a household where her father had several wives, which created competition for limited resources. Because she was the youngest daughter and her siblings were already at home, her parents decided not to send her to school to avoid complaints from other family members.

Without an education, she spent her younger years assisting with manual tasks around the home. Her daily routine involved trekking to the river for water and laboring in the family fields.

She eventually grew up and transitioned into marriage, moving to town, where she lived in rented housing with her husband.

During her marriage, she gave birth to seven children, but she has endured the loss of three of them over the years. Her husband worked as a driver for a hospital, and together they managed to save enough money to buy the plot of land where she currently resides in a mud house.

Life took a difficult turn in 2002 when her husband passed away while working, leaving her to raise the remaining family members alone.

Following her husband's death, she struggled to provide for her four surviving children and four grandchildren left behind by those who passed. She had no steady income or business projects, and the family frequently faced the reality of going without food. Her health also began to fail, leaving her bedridden and unable to even turn her body or walk to the road.

She learned about the Mama Ibado program through announcements made at her local mosque regarding assistance for widows and the elderly. After being registered, she was carried to the center because she was too weak to move on her own.

Through the program, she began receiving a monthly food basket consisting of four kilograms of maize flour, two kilograms of sugar, two liters of cooking oil, rice, porridge flour, tea leaves, and salt.

The medical intervention provided by the program has been life-changing for her management of high blood pressure, diabetes, and chronic ulcers. She now visits the clinic every Thursday for check-ups and receives the medication that has restored her mobility.

"Before I joined this program, I was completely bedridden and could not even turn myself over, but now I can walk to the road and move with ease. The stress of wondering where my next meal will come from has vanished, and the porridge flour especially has given my body the strength I thought I had lost forever."

Zaina still requires consistent help because she is a widow with no source of income caring for young grandchildren who depend on her for school fees and basic needs. Her chronic health conditions require lifelong management that she cannot afford on her own.