By Okong’o Oduya
Busia County, Kenya: Mercy Auma is a student at Kiambu Institute of Science of Technology pursuing a diploma in food and beverage.
Auma is a beneficiary of a second chance program from the office of the women representative Busia County through National government affirmative fund (NGAF).
She says after completing her primary school at St. Mary’s Nambale she joined high school and along the way, she came across a man who lured her with goodies, and before she realizes she was already pregnant forcing her to drop out of school.
After she had delivered in 2014, she was forced to find a way on how to go back to school after she realized that her single mother could not afford to take her back to school.
“After finishing my standard 8 at St. Mary’s primary school Nambale, I joined form one. In high school, I met a man who promised me a good life, and being that I come from a poor family I accepted him in my life.
He bought me the good things I requested and gave me money whenever I asked him. I could share part of it with my family and that is how I ended up getting pregnant and after impregnating me the man disappeared, I have never heard and listened from him up to date.
That is when I heard of the second chance program from the office of women rep in Busia, I went there and explained myself, fortunately, I was given a chance to go back to school again from form one to form four,” she narrated.
Auma who is 23 years from Tangakona village in Busia County will be completing her course next year is calling upon the relevant stakeholders to come to the rescue of many other girls out there who are languishing after they were impregnated and left on their own.
She urges them to engage the girls and understand what they are going through and how they can be assisted in curbing teenage pregnancies especially those from poor family backgrounds.
Pregnancy is a natural developmental process among women and girls; however, evidence shows that a significant portion of adolescent pregnancies is unwanted or mistimed in many countries in Sub-Sahara Africa. These pregnancies present a great public health burden in Kenya and entire Sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnancy not only comes with physical changes among teenage mothers but also the emotional challenges and economic which affects these girls in a big way.
Maryline Njeri Okoba is from Empowered Girls Initiative- EGI an organization that works with teenage mothers in Busia town with aim of curbing teenage pregnancies. The organization support teen moms with school fees buy scholarly materials, facilitators and mentors, and skill training to be able to fend for themselves and their children.
According to her during the pandemic has exposed gaps to most of the communities which saw a surge in teenage pregnancies provoking intervention.
She says most of these girls get pregnant at the age between 14-17 years as a result of curiosity, defilement/rape, peer pressure, poverty among other reasons and they end up being rejected by their family members.
Some end up dropping out of school because of ridicule and shame; they experienced psychological torture and didn’t know who to reach out to.
Similarly, Catherine Pamba, not her real name, is one of the beneficiaries of EGI and a teen mother; she was impregnated at 16.
She was introduced to a relationship by a friend and her effort to refuse it sounded abnormal for not having and not ready to accept a boyfriend and thus, helped her get one and the relationship started.
“One day I was invited by my new boyfriend was Saturday, I went to visit this man and reaching to his house the man closed the door. I was uncomfortable and I requested to leave but the guy was adamant and instead went violent, grabbed me, and forced himself on me when I decline, I was slapped and when he was through, he opened the door and told me to go.” Pamba narrated.
“Confused, I picked up myself and went home, took a shower, and tried to forget about what had happened to me but few months down the line I notices I haven’t seen my monthly period and that is when I realized I was pregnant. I started isolating myself so that nobody could notice the changes in my body and as time flies the pregnancy was growing my mother noticed it and asked me about it and went ahead to tell my father, he was so furious and chased me from home but I refused to leave until I gave birth.”
“My father refused to take me back to school and that is when I resorted to doing odd jobs until EGI came to my rescue and took me back to class,” she said.
Pamba stayed at home for one and a half years and but through the help of EGI, she is back in school in form three in a local Secondary School in Busia, but she transferred to a different school for fear of rejection, emotional and psychological torture from those who knew her. She is picking up well, she is confident and working hard to achieve her dream.
According to Roseline Wandaki, the founder of Fight Depression and Stress (FIDS) based in Busia County most teenage mothers are more likely to experience significant levels of stress which can lead to mental health disorders especially after childbirth.
The director with an organization that deals with advising and counseling girls and women survivors who had experienced gender-based violence in Busia says most new mothers experience baby blues. Baby blues is a feeling of sadness or moodiness that many women experience after giving birth. They typically last two weeks.
These symptoms include mood swings, anxiety, sadness, being overwhelmed, difficulty concentrating, and difficulty sleeping among other experiences.
She further reveals that if a teen mother developed complications during birth or gave birth before the time, she may be prone to depression although the risks may reduce if the mother had a supportive relationship with her close family members and the baby’s father.
“Among the things we do is to advise and encourage these teenage mothers on how to address the challenges they face after they have given birth. We let them know that despite the challenges they may go through they need to come out and speak out and find a way to address them, running away from them does not offer a solution. she said.
“Teenage motherhood doesn’t have to mean a young woman will not be successful in life. The most important thing is to consider what other young mothers before them have faced related to health and finance and eventually they came out of what they were experiencing,” she explained.
Nelly Asere Apollo is from the Collaborative Center for Gender and Development (CCGD), a local organization in Busia County dealing with gender-based related cases says to avoid a situation where teenage mothers develop complications due to stress caused by lack of finances among other causes, they empower them through life skill training and finances to start their own business after the training.
According to her, in most cases these girls are lured into sexual activities by men who promise them goodies and before they realize they are into another pregnancy, before reaching the age of 18 which may lead to depression.
She confirmed that they have so far trained 100 survivors with entrepreneurship skills on how to start, manage and run their business to take care of themselves economically adding that they have partnered with MasterCard Foundation to fund the trainees once the money will be out through a program named ‘Jasiri’.
Judy Oricho is the director of Awino love foundation handling issues on good health and wellbeing campaigns among teenage pregnancies and mothers in Nyanza and the Western region.
According to her deterioration of culture and negligence from parents is contributing to mental health challenges among girls after they have given birth, calling upon the community to play its role in taking care of the girl child to prevent them from early pregnancies and motherhood.
“Efforts to address teenage pregnancies and other sexual and reproductive health matters in most cases are hampered by parents, religious leaders, and other stakeholders despite the mounting evidence that young people are initiating sex earlier than in the past,” she noted.
She says most girls discontinue their education which contributes to harsh life ahead of them leading them to mental disturbance especially when they think about how to look after their newborn without any income adding that teenage parents often don’t complete higher levels of education. They often have more restricted economic opportunities than older parents advising them not to give up in life just because they got pregnant early.
“Teen pregnancies are a major challenge to economic development because they deprive our young girls of the opportunity to further their education and attain their career goals. It also exposes them and their children to major health risks,” she said.
According to Kenya Data and health survey 2014 the report, more than 13,000 teenage girls drop out of school annually because of pregnancy. This is a red flag on the girls’ education, health, and opportunities not to mention a failure on society as a whole.
When COVID -19 struck, cases of teen pregnancies in Busia County increased. Most of these were due to defilement. The county registered a total of 2,550 teenage pregnancies. According to County Children’s Officer Esther Wasige, the closure of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic exposed schoolgirls to more risk especially those living in the border towns of Malaba and Busia associating these cases to limited access to programs directed at protecting children’s rights.
She reveals that Busia is still among the top ten among the counties that has a high number of teenage pregnancies adding that despite the fact that schools opened after the covid-19 pandemic cases of teenage pregnancies are still rising saying that most of these girls had already been exposed to certain behaviors that are contributing to pregnancies.
According to her as a department, they are involving the parents and the community at large to not to give up on these girls to avoid situations where girls have been found guilty of throwing their newborn babies in pit latrines.
She further noted that they are encouraging child rights clubs in schools to provide platforms for the school-going children to be able to address issues affecting them from school.
“Busia County is still reporting high cases of teenage pregnancies. Even after schools resuming the long holidays as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are still recording an increase in early pregnancies.
Most of these girls are exposed to certain behaviors that are contributing to these pregnancies but we are involving the community and schools to address these cases,” she noted.
Marian Murunga Programs Coordinator at Busia Border Hub, mental health among teenage mothers is caused by poverty and lack of proper treatment during and after birth.
Murunga says, most of these pregnancies take place in villages or in slum areas where there is poor or lack of proper medical facilities to address some of the challenges that may face some of these girls when pregnant.
“Youth and families from impoverished communities face many barriers to treatment, which may explain the disparities in access to mental health care. Mental health services in urban and rural communities are often inadequate or insufficient to meet the mental health needs of low-income youth, particularly those from families that rely on public or community-based health care services.”
“As a result, many youths receive mental health services in the primary care setting; however, primary care providers vary in their expertise and ability to treat mental health disorders in adolescents,” she explained.
To reduce cases of mental problems in Busia caused by the poor living standard as a result of lack of income, Murunga says they are partnering with other stakeholders in the county, to offer training to teenage mothers to equip them with skills that will enable them to start their own business to earn a living.
According to Mural Nyangaga is a Clinical Psychologist Trauma from the sexual experience through defilement from people they know contributes to teenage motherhood.
She says domestic violence between them and their baby daddies, most of these teenage mothers are abandoned and when they dare ask for any favors from them they get beaten with a lack of finances to sustain themselves for the basic needs they are left with no option but to think of suicidal ideation since all they get to think about are their problems and how to solve them.
She noted that with the entire burden on them, some of them develop postpartum depression which is a depression that occurs after childbirth, and if not well taken care of, they have a greater risk of developing major depression later on in life. Symptoms might include insomnia, loss of appetite, intense irritability, and difficulty bonding with the baby.
Other than economic empowerment to these teenage mothers, Mural says there is a need for them to get psychosocial support in order to help them cope with the daily life challenges, they need someone to walk them through the journey among other measures such as enrolling in vocational training for skills training like tailoring whose market has really grown.
She advises them to share what they are going through with a trusted person and never look down upon themselves.
“We are human and we are prone to mistakes, learn from your mistake and make yourself a superwoman at the end of the day. Talk to someone you trust, the advice you will get will make you a strong woman to face the challenges you are facing,” she advised.
According to Jack Apopo is the Busia County chairman National Government Affirmative Action Fund, a second chance program has so far seen 678 girls go back to school after they had dropped out of school due to early pregnancies.
He says as the program started in 2013 immediately the office of women rep came in place with an intention to give a second chance to those who wanted to proceed with education spending at least 9 KSH Million to sustain the program.
He says since 2013 every financial year the office has been spending roughly Ksh2Million shillings in implementing the program by paying school fees to those who went back to class.
When the corona pandemic was reported in Kenya, jack noted that they have been forced to go out of their way to provide sanitary towels to school girls to try and reduce cases of early pregnancies that may be come up in search of the same.
He said they also construct houses and buy food for the teenage mothers who went back to school especially those staying with their grandparents.
“The program was started during the first term in the office. We realized that there were many girls dropping out of school as a result of unwanted pregnancies. To empower them, the office of the women representative Busia County introduced a second chance program.
So far the program has benefited 678 girls who went back to school after giving birth.
In approximation we have spent roughly ksh9million in paying school fees and meeting other requirements to these girls,” he said.
World Health Organization reveals that pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15–19 years globally. Teenagers who give birth often face higher rates of poverty and domestic violence later in life due to misogynistic cultural norms and threadbare social safety nets.
