Last term Khadijah Baash, 5, topped her pre-school class in mathematics and reading.
Her academic accomplishments were achieved despite not having electricity at her Heights of Guanapo, Arima home.
Khadijah, who lives downstairs a dilapidated concrete house, which has no roof, studies at nights using a kerosene lamp.
Her mother Nicolette Moses, 24, has been going all out to ensure that Khadijah, who has her heart set on becoming a doctor, attains an education.
Moses was forced to leave her Form Three class at the Guaico Government Secondary School at age 15.
“My mother could not afford to send me to school. After my father gave up on life because of our hardships our whole family fell apart. I had to stop school. I had aspirations to become a chef or a geriatric nurse... but that fell through the cracks.”
Having regretted not completing her education, Moses said she does not want her girl children to suffer the same fate.
“I was deprived of an education. I don’t want the same thing to happen to my children. I don’t want them to live the life I have been living. Education is the key... they only way to move forward.”
Moses, who sells two days a week at the Arima Market with her 40-year-old common-law husband Khaleem Baash, said she still wants to take classes in cookery or geriatric nursing, to make something of her life.
“People have been judging us the way we live. We don’t have anything....no electricity... fancy furnishings and our house is in ruins. This is no way to live,” said a tearful Moses said.
But despite their adversities, Moses said she ensures her children are provided with love, education and food.
Cuddling her four children—Ishmeal, eight, who is autistic, Special, three, Jribeal, five months and Khadijah, Moses admitted that life has been an upward battle for her family.
After meeting Baash, Moses said they invested all their life savings in a five-acre piece of land at the back of their home.
They began cultivating crops on a large scale, but due to envy, Moses said their land was maliciously set on fire five years ago.
“We were left with nothing.”
Moses said Baash began doing odds jobs, but suffered a slipped disc injuring his back.
The couple then turned to vending to make ends meet.
The family occupy one-bedroom in the roofless upstairs and downstairs house which was given to them by a friend.
“When we moved into the bedroom downstairs there was no flooring upstairs so we were exposed to the elements. We had to block if off with a few sheets of galvanise, but when the rain falls we would still get wet.”
To add their woes, Moses said the house also has no electricity and pipe-borne water.
“The house never had electricity. It would cost $5,000 to have it wired, inspected and passed. We cannot afford that.”
They collect water from a nearby standpipe.
Despite their living conditions, Moses said Khadijah, who has excelled in her school work, has given her hope to trek on.
“God has blessed me with a little scholar,” Moses said with pride.
“She loves to read and ask questions. You can’t get her to put down her books. She is a book worm.”
When Moses enrolled Khadijah at the Early Childhood Reading Pre-school at Bybass Road, Arima, three years ago, her daughter was not the brightest child in her class of 16 pre-schoolers.
However, over time, Khadijah, who often had trouble solving math problems, started to perform well due to her mother’s encouragement and help of her teachers.
Khadijah also fell in love with reading and has a passion for gymnastics.
“I made learning fun and exciting for Khadijah. Now she has topped her class. She came first in maths, reading and gymnastics last term. This term I expect nothing less because she has an inquisitive mind. She is always willing to learn,” Moses said.
Moses said that Khadijah would study in their cramped bedroom using a lamp.
“We try to let her do her home work when she comes home. But at nights she would still pick up her books to do revision or just read,” Moses said.
Moses has already registered her daughter in five primary schools in Arima for September.
“Khadijah wants to be a doctor...to help her autistic brother who has never attended school. She wants him to get better, to teach him to read and write.”
Every Sunday, Moses said they would sacrifice and buy the newspapers for its fairy tale stories in the kids section, which Khadijah would read.
“She has a collection of newspaper stories under her bed which she guards with her life.”
While the T&T Guardian was interviewing Moses, Khadijah read fluently, spelt several words and could not stop asking questions.
