Mariam Nabatanzi was just 12 when she was married to a man almost four times her age. By the time she was 13, she had her first set of twins and following that quads, triplets and twins just kept coming.
Mariam suffers from a rare genetic condition and by the time she was 36 she had given birth to 44 children.
She was also left to raise her massive brood alone when her husband walked out on her four years ago.
The devoted mum has three sets of quadruplets, four sets of triplets and six sets of twins.
She works tirelessly to make sure she feeds her youngsters and keeps a roof over their head.
Mariam works as a hairdresser, an event decorator and collects and sells scrap metal.
She also brews her own local gin to sell and makes herbal medicine.
Mariam is determined her children will have all the chances in life that she was denied.
Most of her wages are spent on food, medical care, clothes and school fees.
Photos of her older children graduating from school hang proudly on the walls of her home.
But despite Mariam’s best efforts, one of her children, Ivan Kibuka, had to drop out of school to help raise the family.
The 23-year-old said: “Mum is overwhelmed, the work is crushing her, we help where we can, like in cooking and washing, but she still carries the whole burden for the family. I feel for her.”
Mariam and her children live in tough conditions in just four tiny homes in Uganda.
The buildings are made from cement bricks and a corrugated iron roof and they are surrounded by coffee fields.
Mariam’s own childhood was filled with heartbreak and tragedy.
Just three days after she was born, Mariam’s mum walked out on her, her father and her five siblings.
Her father re-married but her step-mother poisoned Mariam’s older siblings by mixing cut glass in their food.
Mariam was the only one to survive because she was visiting a relative.
She only ever wanted six children but her rare genetic condition meant she had unusually large ovaries.
She was warned by a doctor that any birth control, like the contraceptive Pill, would cause her problems.
Then her husband, who would often be absent from the family home for long periods, abandoned her and his children for good.
Speaking about her self, Mariam said: “I started taking on adult responsibilities at an early stage. I have not had joy, I think, since I was born.”
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