The way to fight teenage pregnancies is to build a strong local social system
You know, when I was growing up, teenage pregnancies and early marriages were completely abstract ideas. At one point, it became real when a head girl in our high school got pregnant. Seeing her confidently walking around the school compound in school uniform with such a large protruding belly was truly a wake up call for me.
She fought the stigma around getting pregnant while in school and soldiered on to complete her studies successfully. She sat for her final exams. It was so most probably because she was empowered. I mean, she was the head girl. She had access to information and matters sexual health. She had the right people surrounding her. She had the right programs to help her cope. She was in a good school.
Today, I see her managing her own family and kids admirably well. She is a proud mother and her story is beautifully enthralling. This is so because she was enlightened.
A story aired by Citizen TV Kenya on Sunday the 5th of September 2021 triggered me to think of how I could continue to serve the youth in this county and possibly the entire country as well. If a youth program is able to change the minds and hearts of people, then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t open one. I noted with a lot of concern how Kilifi County has been on the limelight for the wrong reason teenage pregnancies. If teenage pregnancies are to be tamed in our country, then the people must be enlightened. They must have access to information. Knowing things puts you on a pedestal and one is in a position to make informed decisions on how to go about an issue.
I am saddened by the phrase ‘a child with a child’. In a poverty stricken society, further compounded by a weird disease, COVID-19, it becomes quite hard for a young person to be fully sane. Imagine living a tough life yourself as a young girl probably from a poor family, and getting pregnant and delivering a baby whose father may not be able to take care of. It’s heartbreaking that this unfortunate and precarious happening is actually a norm in Kilifi County and in Kenya as a whole.
If I am to look at why we have these things happening in our society, I would point out some reasons (and possible solutions) as follows :
- Curiosity and or peer pressure
Just like in Kanga’s story, aired by Citizen TV Kenya, everyone has their fair share of wanting to know and experience things for the very first time. The 17 year old father of two perhaps would not have indulged in any sexual activity if he knew the aftermath. Perhaps he would have taken precautions and abstained till he became of age. Or if curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, then he would have protected himself using condoms.
I am not in any way advocating for such measures for our adolescents but then tough times call for tough measures. It is a fast changing world unlike when we were growing up. The ‘generation Z’ is a different kind of breed, sorry to say. These kind of people are quick learners and out to explore more than we the millennials. I’ve seen this in my teaching career as I’ve experienced interacting with youngsters of teen age in my classrooms and learning sessions.
2. Inadequate or even lack of parental guidance and role models
Also, living in a third world generation, crippled further by harsh economic times brought about by debts, and almost at the brink of death from Covid 19, youths are lacking adequate parental guidance and role models. Most parents are busy trying to make ends meet.
The kind of energy put into trying to eke out a living from whatever resource is almost impossible to believe. Parents are drained to the core and have to grapple with providing food for their homesteads, paying recurring electricity and water bills, paying school fees, paying rent perhaps, paying hospitals bills and lots of miscellaneous. Taxes, additionally, are also in this list and the cost of living is high. Breadwinners spend long hours working. Such parents rarely have the time to talk to their children at depth about issues they may be facing. Fatigue wears them down.
It is no wonder that most adolescents and youth turn to social media and their immediate friends and community for ‘guidance’. Most of the times, they lack a sense of direction and wander away. It is even easier when there is no one to remind them every now and then on what to do and what not to. Parents and guardians ought to create time, however little, and share matters with their children. He society should also be geared towards doing the right things too as young people emulate those older than they are most of the time.
Additionally, the government, non governmental organizations and other stakeholders can also step in and lift those in dire need in one way or another.
3. Low community income
It is great to note that Kenya has changed in terms of infrastructure and development over the years but it is also not wrong to say that it is not where it ought to be yet. Most people in the society survive on meagre salaries and wages.
It is only the chosen few who live comfortably without having to worry about the basic needs — food, clothes, shelter, education and sex. Some are even privileged enough not to fret over luxury. In the same society, sadly, the have nots have to hustle hard. In the course of trying to get going, teenagers and young people meet people who can offer what they direly need but often at a price. For instance, girls are lured by boda boda riders into sleeping with them in exchange for money and gifts.
In the course of all this madness, some end up getting pregnant. It would be pretty hard for this to happen if it were an empowered and stable community. Girls can be educated on how to say ‘no’ to being lured into sex for money or other privileges. In the same vein, boda boda riders and men in general can be made aware of the adverse effects of premarital sex, fornication and rape. Knowledge is power.
Cases of girls giving in to sexual advances for mere money are quite rare in well to do families. To curb the issue of low income, men and women ought to be empowered to become fully independent. Farming, for instance, can be a great venture for youths and communities here at the coast. If ways of fully exploiting the spaces people have are introduced, then harvests can be handsome. Resources being made available would catapult ordinary farmers to extra ordinary heights and low income can be a thing of the past.
4. Lack of community coordinated programs for youth
An idle mind is truly the devil’s workshop. Youths are people who have quite a lot of energy and when channeled in the wrong avenues, disasters are bound to happen. Teenage pregnancies and young single mother or single father cases rise as a result (from school going boys who turn out to be deadbeat fathers or just irresponsible men or girls or women who choose not to raise their children).
Most youth in Kilifi County, and in Malindi (where I reside), pass their time away at boda boda parking zones or just chilling spots (locally called Vijiweni in Swahili) looking at people and cars pass by and telling stories. It is a good thing to engage, talk and share ideas. But then the same spots are where they are exposed to drugs and substance abuse.
Here in Malindi, for instance, muguka, miraa, local brew (mnazi), bhang, tobacco (in the form of cigarettes) and even crack (heroine) are at everyone’s disposal. For the youth also to feel like they belong to the in group, they are somehow enticed to use these stimulants. It is also interesting to note that most of these drugs are affordable for the youth. Muguka, for instance, a mild stimulant whose leaves are chewed (like khat — miraa) is weighed and sold for as cheap as thirty Kenyan shillings (Ksh. 30).
Youths get to experience euphoria and feel ‘high’ without much of a struggle really. They get to have a pastime and build social relations.
The social impact of teenage pregnancies and early marriages is vast and a whole new article to write about. Depression sets in as these unfortunate events happen in the long term. In a bid to get rid of issues like lower educational achievements, dropping out of school, constant depression and anxiety, lower chances of finding employment, poverty, and ignorance, the highlighted issues need to be addressed for us to avoid the ‘detours ahead’.
This narrative can be changed if the communities introduced programs that would turn their energy into meaningful practices. Myths about talking about sex with youngsters honestly need to be debunked.
Learning or literacy hubs, technical schools, sport and recreation activities or events, fun fairs, camps, after school or out-of-school time (non-school) programs, youth clubs, community based organisations, community service, art indulgence (like music or painting) and peer counseling and mentor-ship are just examples of avenues in which the young (and old too) can be made to indulge in for a fuller and whole person to come into being. Teenage pregnancies and early marriages will be eliminated if such programs come into realization. They will. They must.
I am an agent of change. We all are. We can.
