Letter 2

TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN THE SLUMS

Laini Saba is a locality in the slum of Kibera. This is where I was brought up and is the basis for much of what I know of this world. It is a densely populated area which has no race or ethnical issues since the place has people from diverse background. Here I meet people that I grew up with becoming close friends to most of the girls and also some boys. We used to play around in our childhood totally carefree but most of these people especially the girls are now mothers to several kids.

There are different incidents that I know of and will share just one of these stories with you as it is a touching story about a girl called Nancy. She was my friend in primary school and although we were not that close, she was well known in the school for her courage. Unfortunately, she got involved with a young boy who was a school drop out and also a thief. The boy used to give her presents that she would never have been able to normally afford and soon they became intimate. The girl was so in love with the boy that by the age of 14 she became pregnant. She then took her exams almost nine months pregnant when we where in class eight finishing our primary school level certificate. After several weeks the boyfriend, the supposed husband was burned to death for robbery with a tyre necklace with petrol placed over his head. The emotion of this made her so physically weak, depressed and emotionally unstable that she decided to get involved with another man almost as a comfort and for security. Within another nine months she had given birth to another child belonging to her second boyfriend. Since she was not employed and had not completed her education she was staying at home with her two children waiting for the boyfriend to provide everything.

The boyfriend became tired of her and started violating her; beating her black and blue every now and then and abusing her but she had no where to go to so she just stuck around and soon gave birth to a third child by the age of 16. In no time the boyfriend forced her out of the house so she was left to fend for herself and her children in the streets. She had no surviving family as her mother had died and her father had gone away so she started selling herself to provide for her children and herself and in no time she contracted the HIV Aids virus. She slept carelessly to make money for the pain she felt, not minding who she slept with but just to earn money.

Nancy, a mother of three is now living/dying with HIV Aids, her children have been removed from her and taken to an orphanage and she is now on her death bed counting her remaining days.

This is just one story about a girl, one of many in my slum settlement, about teenage pregnancy and the effect that it has on teenage girls who do not have the means of earning a living by not having a complete education. If Nancy had achieved an education she would have been free to make better life choices.

This is written by a girl who advanced from one of our “Schools of Hope” to College in Nairobi and is now studying Community Development.