During and after the Covid crises the number of teenage mothers in Western Kenya has increased significantly. That’s why we run a lot of prevention and awareness training sessions for girls and young teenage mothers in our two MMH centers in Webuye and Tongaren area in Bungoma county, and at our Solasa MMH center in Eldoret, Western Kenya.

“The reasons for the increased numbers for teenage mothers are many. Poverty, hopelessness, sex for food, cultural awareness and acceptance… often young teenage mothers leave the babies with the grandmothers and try to earn some money in the cities. Often they get pregnant a second, third time at a very early age,” explains Vera, our local NGO partner from Core Health & Wealth Family.

Together with local nurses and mental well-being trainers we support young women and mothers. With the ongoing support of one of our Making More Health and Ashoka fellows, Eszter Harsyani, we have set up parent centers as an integrated part of our MMH hubs in close collaboration with our Core NGO partners. Eszter has trained parents and teachers on early childhood development and “learning through play” and collaborates closely with other national organization involved in children protection. Ongoing information sessions on women health and sexual education for young women are taking place.

Young mothers are also involved in our income generating training sessions and get mentoring and support in our center.

Soon, we start – together with the Missing child Kenya Foundation and the county police department in Bungoma county – safety training sessions for children, young girls and parents in our centers. Trafficking and children running away from home are very critical topics in underserved communities. Many children are not officially registered and have no ID.

More Information on this initiative will follow…

Child protection and development as well as support for adolescents and young mothers are taking part in all our centers within the system changer network Kenya (SCN)

All our SCN partners run dedicated children protection and sexual education programs for young/ teenage mothers, e.g VICCO NGO in Mukuru Slums in Nairobi and Wa-Wa NGO at Lake Victoria and Mukuru Angaza with its youth programs. The SCN uses strategically built exchange structures to share educational skills and programs and innovative ideas.