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Jordan_ASRH_Khawla_Shaheen
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Resource ID
72476
Access
Open
Uploading member
CARE Norway
Consent form provided?
Yes
Region
Middle East
Country
Jordan
Theme
Sexual reproductive and maternal health, Education
Keywords
Advocacy, CARE staff, Child marriage, Family planning, Personal Records, Schools, Volunteer
Named person(s)
Khawla Shaheen
Credit
Baulhassani, Jasmin
Copyright
Jasmin Baulhassani/CARE
Date Image Taken
04 July 19
Caption
Khawla Shaheen (33) was married off while she was still a teenager. Soon, she became pregnant; a child raising a child. Today, she works as a counsellor with CARE to teach youth about ASRH. This is her story:
I have always lived in Amman. My childhood was a beautiful experience. It had innocence. It had love and family and safety.
It is important to have someone you feel safe with. To have someone you have a deep connection with. Childhood is full of innocence. You are not longing for experiences you haven’t had. But when I met him, that all changed.
I was in high school and I was tall for my age. Whenever I left the house with my mother, I would get approached by men who wanted to get engaged to me.
One day, his grandmother came over. I was young and quite gullible. His grandmother managed to convince my family; and then they convinced me to get married. I wasn’t fully on board but, at that age, I couldn’t make my own decisions.
My dream was to continue my education and become a counsellor. After the first year of marriage, it was hard to pursue that dream because I became pregnant. Suddenly, I had to be an adult. Yet, I was a child raising a child.
I was 17 years old the first time I was pregnant. I had a difficult pregnancy. I entered a bad mental state and my body went through a lot of trauma. Everyone around me was happy that I got pregnant, but it felt bitter-sweet to me. My husband wasn’t helpful because he was at work most of the time. If I only had waited longer to get married, it would have been easier.
When my youngest child turned five years old, I started to long for something more. I didn’t want to be home all day. I wanted to do something meaningful with my time. I first heard of CARE while I was doing some volunteer work in my community, five years ago. I went there to do a CARE-course about how to help our local youth. Everyone was very nice to me and made me feel safe. I felt like I was heading somewhere good.
Our community has many issues, such as gender-based violence, child marriage, bullying and child labour. I was motivated to become a resource in my community and try to solve these issues. I took the course because I wanted to improve my skills and grow as a person.
I learnt so much from CAREs course. I learned how to become a leader and how to work with different challenges. It gave me a lot of confidence, and it was a bitter-sweet feeling when the course ended. I wanted the course to be longer, because we loved our trainer. I didn’t want the course to end, but I was ready to make a positive impact.
Now, I am with CAREs permanent committee and we are focusing on Adolescent Reproductive Health. My work with youth is to answer any questions they may have. The most common question is about puberty. Some girls approach me with questions about how they can start making their own decisions.
Whenever I teach a class, they tell me that they learnt so much and that I had a positive impact on them. I feel so good about this work. Sometimes, I bring my own children to the course. My oldest daughter also contributes a lot in class.
There should be more focus and conversations around sexual reproductive health and rights, because there is such a lack of awareness at that age in Jordan. A lot of youth doesn’t even know what reproductive health is. CAREs programme is good for our community and I wish it would expand. CARE is the only organization that focuses on this area. No one else is discussing it.
Filmed and edited by Jasmin Baulhassani/CARE Norway in Amman, Jordan. For more information, contact jasmin.baulhassani@care.no.
Marker lat / long: 31.1, 36.6 (WGS84)
Public: Jasmin Baulhassani for CARE Norway