FAWE Kenya Rolls Out Tamatisha Program to Curb Teenage Pregnancies

By John Kariuki

The Forum for African Women Educationalists FAWE Kenya has adopted a baseline assessment report on teenage Pregnancies under the auspices of Tamatisha Report.

The Tamatisha program is running for two years.

Teenage pregnancies remain a serious and ongoing economic, health and social problem in Kenya. On top of robbing girls of their childhood, it also presents a huge challenge to their capacity to optimize their potential in future contributions to social, economic, and political national development.

Teresa Otieno noted that Narok County is the leading in teen Pregnancies and FAWE – Kenya is working to get teen mother’s back to school. At the moment they have returned around 300 girls in schools.

The programme will run for the period of two years, June 2022 to June 2024. The main beneficiaries are teen mothers/adolescents ages of 9 to 18 years and young women aged 19 to 25 years.

In the framework of this programme, young girls are provided with useful knowledge and necessary skills to be able to fully transition to adulthood and help them become productive members of their communities.

“We have chosen this age group because they are dropping out of school and missing out on a bright future. It is possible and it has been proven before that a teenage mother can resume her studies and excel in her academics.” Said Ms. Teresa Otieno, CEO, FAWE Kenya.

This is being done through engagement of key stakeholders and government ministries in the development of the research.

Girls are empowered through Tuseme clubs in schools on the prevention of teenage pregnancies.

The clubs use theatre and arts to enable girls identify and analyse the emergent problems and how they hinder their academic and social development, speak out about issues affecting them and take action to solve them.

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