Against All Odds: The Fatuma Zarika Story- Part 2
31st August 2018
WBC champion recounts the hardship of doing menial jobs and becoming a teenage mother
- Soon after she left her menial employment and still at a very tender age, the teenage Zarika was blessed with a daughter
- Zarika’s mother Aisha continued to do as much as she could to provide for her family and her daughter followed in her footsteps
- Other than the primary needs that she needed to cater for, another huge struggle that she had to deal with was the regular medical attention that her sickly daughter required
- The then 19-year old Zarika moved to South B with her cousin in an attempt to seek greener pastures for Sophia and herself
NAIROBI, Kenya- From humble beginnings eminent female boxer, Fatuma Njeri Zarika, has risen through the ranks to become a beacon of the sport among her peers, inspiring a generation of girls to take up the tough discipline.
On Thursday, SportPesa News published the first of a six-part series on the story of the boxer whose life that started in the crime-prone Satellite estate of Nairobi before rising to the World Boxing Council Super Bantamweight title she will defend on September 8.
The second part of the story highlights the difficulties she went through after her education ended early due to lack of school fees.
THE HARDSHIP
Zarika’s first job was as a housemaid, one which she diligently did for a year before getting yet another year-long gig as an aid to an old, sickly woman in the neighbourhood.
Soon after she left her menial employment and still at a very tender age, the teenage Zarika was blessed with a daughter. Sophia Zarika was brought into this world on the August 12, 1997.
Despite the natural joy and sense of fulfilment that a new-born brings to a mother, a cloud of anxiety engulfed her as she was troubled by thoughts of her ability to provide for her beloved daughter.
"Sophia was a bundle of joy and she was one of the very few things that would put a smile on my face after every long day.
"Though she fell sick quite often and as a mother being unable to help by simply catering for medical expenses, is a feeling that is almost impossible for one to get over,” she decried.
Zarika’s mother Aisha continued to do as much as she could to provide for her family and her daughter followed in her footsteps.
They grafted through the hardships doing any work they could find just to put food on the table at the end of the day.
The then 19-year old Zarika moved to South B with her cousin in an attempt to seek greener pastures for Sophia and herself.
Other than the primary needs that she needed to cater for, another huge struggle that she had to deal with was the regular medical attention that her sickly daughter required.