By Calvin Onyango
From the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts warned on increased violence against women, girls and children. Today, violence against children is a daily reality in Dandora. Adolescent girls are more so exposed to different forms of violence such as child labor, sexual and gender based violence and early child marriage.
A number of human rights activists in my area set up mentorship programs to address this through the Social Justice Centre. The gender based violence committee and mentorship coordinators hope that having these conversations could help in mitigating these challenges. I was able to attend one of these mentorship sessions on 9th October that focused on sexual and reproductive health rights.
On arrival, I was amazed by the turn out of young girls, and wondered why there were no boys in sight. I then learned that the program is carried out in three phases, the first phase is girls group, followed by the boys group and lastly all of them in one sitting.
We ensured COVID-19 precaution measures were adhered to throughout the session. The main aim of this activity was to get opinions of teenage girls regarding teenage pregnancies crises and to find out what are the contributing factors.
I was amazed by the level of participation of teenage girls in identifying factors leading to teenage pregnancies throughout the activity. Some of the points they raised were peer pressure, low self-esteem, poverty, strict parenting, lack of parental attention, child abuse and lack of sexual and reproductive health education.
During this conversation I realized teenagers do not know the course of action to be taken in case of rape or defilement. Towards the end of the program, girls came up with a number of solutions to teenage pregnancies. Indeed, most teenagers engage in activities out of confusion and they need to be guided by the right mentors. The activity ended with a word of prayer.
The next mentorship program, the boys’ phase, was the next day. These time, it was the boys’ turn to give their opinion regarding teenage pregnancies. To kick-start the session, the boys were asked what their reactions would be if their younger sisters got pregnant. Varied responses followed.
The boys then proceeded to identify factors that they thought contribute to teenage pregnancies. Some points raised had similarities with what the girls raised the previous day, such as peer pressure, low self-esteem and love, poverty, idleness and lack of self-control.
During the conversation I realized that there was still a rape culture mindset, with some boys sighting mode of dressing as a cause for teenage pregnancies. Most of these teenage boys also felt entitled to sexual favors, citing transactional sex as a standard mode of operation.
With closing remarks, the boys identified solutions that they think will help curb and reduce teenage pregnancies. They tabled decent mode of dressing for the girls, continuous economic empowerment programs for the youths, sexual and reproductive health rights, use of condoms in case of intimacy and free counselling sessions for teenagers.
I also noticed that teenagers apart from unwanted pregnancy, most teenagers were not aware of consequences of unsafe sexual practices.
Although a noble initiative, community based organizations such as Dandora community justice center are crumbling to sustain great initiatives owing to lack of support to cater for operational costs. They mostly get by on funds that they raise amongst themselves. They were only able to reach about 120 girls and boys, a far cry from the 600 they had hoped to. Furthermore, they fear that they may have to halt the program all together.
#SautiJasiri
