Empowerment Hub for Teenage Mothers

Teenage pregnancy has been rising despite of the initiation of programs to help stop the occurrence of teenage pregnancy. What seems to have gone wrong is the lack of importance given to the social and emotional effects of teenage pregnancy. Being a teenage mum can bring along social repercussions that extend into adulthood. A large percentage of teen moms drop out of primary or high school Kenya. Dropping out of school to handle pregnancy or care for a newborn can prevent a teenage mum from learning the skills necessary for adulthood and obtaining a job. Without proper education, she will struggle even more to rise above an increasedrisk of poverty.Caring for a new baby requires a sacrifice of sleep, expenses, and time. For a teen mum who waspreviously engaged in social activities, it might be a shocking change to suddenly be unable to participate in many extracurricular activities. The amount of isolation that she feels can be diver stating especially from family members. Only a few of teenage mum have the opportunity to have emotional or financial assistance from their parents or relatives. In addition, some teen mums find themselves overwhelmed by their new lifestyle and will have to work to make new friends they have more in common with.Adolescents do not usually have a plan of getting pregnant when they engage in sexual behavior.It is their inability to make a note of the consequences of unplanned indulgence in sex that puts them at risk. It is after the teenager has realized that she is pregnant that she discovers the possible downsides to it at a tender age. The fact that most teenage girls are unaware of the process that pregnancy is, they end up not taking care of themselves and indulging in bad habits such as smoking and drinking to lay the depressed phase off.Below are stories of teenage mums (Sharon, Joan and Diana) whose lives have been transformed after 100 girls initiative.Sharon, Joan and Diana are teenage mothers who are between the ages of 15 and 18.They all comes from vulnerable families and they are partial orphans. Being teenage mums they all had a share of challenges and difficulties in their lives. As they narrated their stories Joan had worked in illicit brew den with her widowed mum to support their family, Diana joined her mum at a tender age farming land for people and sometimes not being compensated for the hard work doneor sometimes paid 1 dollar which is indeed exploitation. Sharon moved from one relative to another and worked as a domestic worker without being paid and faced a lot of abuse.The 100 girls initiative was an eye opener to the girls as most of them had no ideas of how much potential they exuded. The training was designed for 6 months of which they were to learn skills on hair dressing as business venture. They had no prior training or experience in this field of hairdressing and beauty and only one of them had a talent in braiding but had no professional training on hair dressing. At the orientation sessions at the Elegance Salon in Homabay County the young women had very low self esteem and lacked confidence and self-awareness. There was need to enhance their self esteem and confidence within themselves by encouraging group discussions to share their experiences and challenges as teen mothers.Success storiesAfter the training Sharon, Joan and Diana were taken through an internship for two months and after finishing the internship. Sharon went back to settle with her mother comfortably and found employment at one of her mother’s friend salon in their neighborhood and also she has began plaiting corn rows at home and supplying to nearby salon and clients. Diana gained employment at a nearby salon and she is paid in commission per client and sometimes she offers assistance to the salon where she did her internship if there are more clients to earn extra money. Joan has been fully absorbed at the Elegance salon after the training and internship as a permanent employee.To minimize the negative social impact, communication with a solid support system is essential for a teenage mum. If a teenager is experiencing the challenges of parenting, as a society is our responsibility to make sure she has access to a counselor and she has an economic support. In addition our communities should offer programs to enable teenage mums connect with each other, develop their skills and promote economic sustainability. It is also important for schools tohave programs that allow teenage mums an opportunity to complete their education if they wish to and avoid discrimination

Project Summary

Teenage pregnancy and subsequent motherhood presents a major challenge to a girl child who has no social support from family, friends and the community. Community Focus Group (CFG) believed in the future of these girls and developed a program to identify and empower the most vulnerable teen mothers in Kenya. As an organization we aim to offer these young mothers access to education and economic empowerment through training and skills building. Several of the young girls in Kenya have conceived as a result of rape or sexual violence among other circumstances. Community Focus Group agenda is to offer these girls a chance to rewrite their future free of judgment or condemnation. The goal of the project is to equip the young girls with skills and expertise to enable them to earn a living and change their live and support their children.

The project target is to reach out to 100 teen mothers per county faced with high rate of teen pregnancy below the age of 19 years. The skill development training include and not limited to tailoring, baking/cooking, beads work, basketry, beauty and hair dressing, entrepreneurship training (they are instructed also on how to develop a business plan, start a business and save money) and back to school program option (they are provided with adult education, formal and non-formal education).

Homabay County

Regionally, statistics are worrying. According to the latest demographic health survey, 19.2 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 19 in HomaBay County have had a live birth already, while 22.2 per cent within that bracket have begun child bearing. In addition, contraception uptake among women aged 15 to 49 in the county is below average, at 46.7 per cent. While people aged between 15 and 19 are sexually active, their level of contraception, even for disease preventing measures such as condom use, is the lowest, at below five per Cent.Homabay County is ranked 2^nd nationally after Narok County on high rate of teenage pregnancies. According to chiefs and other law enforcers, poverty and passive parenting make it difficult to effectively tackle teenage pregnancies and punish the people responsible for them. “No matter how much you threaten the girls, they will never reveal who made them pregnant” according to the chief views and observation.

100 Girls project Homabay cohort

Community Focus Group embarked on skill development training of 4 girls in Homabay County. The process of selection was done on the basis of their background story and needs assessment done per individual. The girls were given orientation on the main agenda of the program and joined the training on the 1^st of March 2018 at Elegance hair dressing salon and end in 31^st August. The training time frame was 6 month and the girls were taken through a practical training on Hair braiding, retouch, styling, dread locks, corn row plaiting, Wash and set, pricing, customer Etiquette. After the training the top 2 girls will be given an internship position in the same salon for two month to sharpen their skills further.

Impact of the project

Self esteem and awareness

When the girls joined the program they had very low self esteem due to the challenges they have faced all their life according to their person stories. All of them came from a single parent family (widowed mothers) and they all dropped out of school after getting pregnant. Their mothers don’t have a stable income to support their families and they have lived in poverty and had to do anything (selling elicit brew, farming others peoples land etc) to put food on the table. The experiences made them to lose confidence and hope. This project has enabled them to believe in themselves again, enhanced their self esteem and has given them an opportunity to showcase their gift and talents of hair dressing.

Interpersonal and communication skills

Majority of them came with very poor interpersonal and communication skills due to their upbringing or having to deal with the judgmental and psychological aspect in the society as teenage mothers coming from a vulnerable background. The project has helped them to improve on their life and positive thinking skills, personality development skills, management skills, behavioral skills, including job and employability skills.

Skill development

All the girls had no prior experience in hair dressing. The six month training has given the girls transformation from unskilled, unemployed girls to potential employees or even future employers. Above all it has given them hope as a means to earn a living and support their children and siblings.

Conclusion

 Empowering girls and young women is not an ‘option’ for a modern society — it should have already happened a long time ago. This project has become an eye opener to young teenage mothers and their peers because it has given them hope and opportunity to explore their potential and become an example to their communities that their dreams are valid.

When you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a you educate a family (nation).Dr James Emmanuel Kwegy

Thank You So Much For your support! Please lets donate more to train 100 Girls!