Please Help Domestic Violence Survivor Rehema Matemba

A Mother’s Cry: Rehema’s Story of Survival and Hope

Rehema Matemba is a 42-year-old mother whose life was torn apart on the morning of February 25th, 2025, a day she will never forget.

For years, Rehema lived in quiet suffering. Her husband had long abandoned her and their children, never offering emotional support, never contributing a single coin to help raise them. He would disappear without explanation and return just as suddenly, only to eat, sleep, and leave again. Rehema never questioned him. She had grown used to the silence, the absence, the void he left behind. She simply continued, faithful, determined, and alone.

Through her work as a tailor, Rehema clothed her children, fed them, and sent them to school. Her sewing machine, her hands, and her strength were all she had. She never asked her husband for anything, not even once.

So when he returned home on that fateful day, she assumed it was the same as always.

But this time… it was different.

He had not come home to rest.

He had come to end her life.

Without a reason, he picked up a sharp knife and slashed her throat. Rehema gasping for air, choking on her blood. But before she could cry for help, he turned his blade to the very hand she used to sew, to provide. With brutal force, he began hacking at her right hand. He struck again and again, as if determined to destroy the only part of her body that symbolized strength, survival, and purpose. When his brother and neighbours approached and interrupted the attack, he fled and yelled that he would come back to finish his work. Rehema was left in a pool of her blood, barely clinging to life.

The Battle to Survive

Dr. Noel Munishi of Muriet Hospital in Arusha confirmed that Rehema arrived with life-threatening injuries:

Deep slashes across her face, neck, chest, and both hands

Her right hand mutilated, three fingers completely severed, bones exposed, tendons shredded. Her left hand was also injured.

Her body bore evidence of repeated blows to the head, likely from a machete. She had lost so much blood that a transfusion was immediately required. The medical team raced against time to save her life. Rehema was rushed into surgery and placed under close observation. Her condition remains critical but stable. Her road to recovery will be long, painful, and uncertain.

A Voice Through the Pain: Rehema’s Plea

Lying in her hospital bed, her voice weak, her body broken, Rehema still clings to hope, not for herself, but for her children.

“Please.... tell the women across the world, mothers, sisters, and friends, to help me,” she whispered through tears.

“I don’t have a right hand anymore. I will never be able to sew again. My husband tried to kill me… and now I’m left alone, broken, and wounded, not just in my body, but in my spirit too. But I am still a mother. I am still alive. I must fight for my children.”

Rehema never asked her husband for anything.

Now, she is asking you.

Why Your Help Matters

Rehema’s only source of income, her ability to sew, was violently taken from her. Yet her children still need food, school fees, clothes, and love. She is determined to live. Determined to provide. Determined to rise again.

All she asks for is:

Help with medical expenses.

With startup capital for a small business, she can manage with one hand and support to keep her children in school.

Members of her church testify to her strength, her faith, and her quiet dignity. She is a woman who has lost almost everything, but not her will to live.

Let Us Stand With Rehema

Let this be the moment where the world wraps its arms around Rehema.

Let mothers across the globe say: We see you. We hear you. We will not let you fall.

Every act of compassion—no matter how small—can help rebuild her world.

If you would like to support Rehema, whether financially or through sharing her story, please reach out. Together, we can help her reclaim her dignity, restore her hope, and secure a better future for her children.

Because no woman should have to rise alone.