Day care centre in Kilifi: A refuge to school-going teen mothers
A guest plays with one of the children at the Wheels of Hope daycare in Junju, Kilifi County. During the day, teen mothers bring their children as they go to school.
Mary, not her real name, gave birth to a girl when she was 16 years old, not sure if she would ever go back to school.
She joined Form One this year after a group of cyclists from Mombasa came to her rescue. She is among the few teens in Kilifi County who have managed to return to school after giving birth.
“I used to wash clothes for people as a source of income because I have six siblings who all depend on my mother,” she says.
Her daughter is now six months old, and the teenager says that were it not for the support she received from the cyclists, she could not have returned to school.
“I have greatly benefited from the initiatives they started. Were it not for them, I would not be joining Form One today. They have supported me all through.”
The centre, in the Junju area of Bomani village, was started last year by a group of cyclists under the umbrella Wheels of Hope, a community-based organisation that teaches life skills to vulnerable girls.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the cyclists would see young girls on roadsides selling firewood, some of them already pregnant.
“We started the initiative to go to interior villages of Kilifi searching for those teens who have given birth or are pregnant,” says Esther Mali, one of the founders.
“The first time, we cycled from Mtwapa to those interior villages asking for village elders and the chief to assist us on the mission. We identified 24 girls and started training them.”
They then decided to find a way of accommodating them.
“We talked to the chief of the area, and we managed to find a house we could rent. Through our social media cyclist groups, we started a fundraiser,” Ms Mali says.
In December, they noticed many girls had not reported back to class when school reopened because the majority were either pregnant or had already given birth, and they started raising money to help them.
“We cycled from Mombasa to Kitale for six days while raising campaigns via social media. We raised Sh120,000,” says Ms Mali, adding that in January the money helped them rent a two-room house in Bomani and buy beds and food for the babies of the teen moms.
A guest plays with one of the children at the Wheels of Hope daycare in Junju, Kilifi County as Ms Esther Mali (centre) looks on. During the day, teen mothers bring their children as they go to school.
The mothers would drop off the children at the centre as they cycled to school, with bicycles given to them by the organisation.
She says they transformed the centre into a day-care, where the teen mothers could keep their children as they attended classes.
“The girls were not going to school, because their mothers said they did not have time nor money to cater for their grandchildren, a situation that forced the teens to look for means of survival. We talked to the parents, and they agreed to let us support their girls,” Ms Mali says.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they would hold counselling and mentorship sessions with the girls in school as volunteers looked after the children in the centre. They are washed, clothed, fed and put to sleep when their mothers are in school.
She says they had a challenge helping all the girls, so they sent some into tailoring, hair and beauty classes.
“On Saturdays, those who are in school and not pregnant receive mentorship talks from us and the teen mothers. This was to help curb the numbers of underage pregnancy cases,” Ms Mali says, noting that since they started the initiative only one girl has been reported to have become pregnant.
During the talks, they would also offer dignity kits that included sanitary pads and underwear for the girls and diapers and milk for the children.
“We came up with a method during the counselling where the girls would tell us one good thing that happened to them during the week, challenges they are facing and one secret about them,” she says.
“We did it through writings and avoided writing names to help them boost their confidence.”
Ms Mali says these close interactions with the girls have greatly helped their parents, who feel a burden has been lifted from them, accepting their children back home.
Beatrice, not her real name, is another beneficiary of the initiative. She, too, reported back to school after a year of taking care of her baby at home.
She gave birth when she was in Standard Six.
“I am a candidate now. We received bicycles from the group that started the centre. It has helped us go to school and come back during lunch hours to feed our babies without being late. I had no idea I would ever go back to school. I had given up,” says Beatrice.
Mary, who has joined Form One at a boarding school near her home, will be given permission every week to go home and bond with her baby, something she says she will forever appreciate.
By Maureen Ongala, Farhiya Hussein and Siago Cece
This story is part of a series examining teen pregnancies in Kenya's Coastal counties. Also Read:
