https://www.theguardian.com/global-devel...-pregnancy
INTRO: Thousands of girls in Kenya will not be going back to school when classes start again in January, because they became pregnant during the Covid 19-lockdown.
The African Institute for Development Policy puts the number of teenage girls who became pregnant in the country between January and May at more than 150,000, with Nairobi recording nearly 12,000 pregnancies. Anecdotal evidence from healthcare workers across the Kenyan capital suggest the true figures could be higher, as many pregnant teenagers are not coming to clinics.
Parents were unable to provide basic hygiene requirements such as clean water, soap and sanitary pads after schools in Kenya closed in March, says Mercy Chege, programme director at Plan International Kenya, and there were cases of young women being preyed on by older men with spare cash.
“It is a shadow pandemic,” says Chege. “Out of school, the girls had much free, unsupervised hours where the allure of sex for pads was irresistible. The government used to give sanitary pads to girls while in school but failed to extend the services to their homes when schools closed, leaving the girls at the mercy of ‘friends with benefits’.
“Sometimes sex was in exchange for as little as the 15 Kenyan shillings (10p) required to pay for a daily shower in a public bathroom. Many would go for days without taking a bath and could do anything to appease someone who promised them such small luxuries.”
She adds: “A few girls were lured into child pornography. Perpetrators told them it was not wrong since they did not have to practise what they saw, but they didn’t know they were being sexually abused.” (MORE)
INTRO: Thousands of girls in Kenya will not be going back to school when classes start again in January, because they became pregnant during the Covid 19-lockdown.
The African Institute for Development Policy puts the number of teenage girls who became pregnant in the country between January and May at more than 150,000, with Nairobi recording nearly 12,000 pregnancies. Anecdotal evidence from healthcare workers across the Kenyan capital suggest the true figures could be higher, as many pregnant teenagers are not coming to clinics.
Parents were unable to provide basic hygiene requirements such as clean water, soap and sanitary pads after schools in Kenya closed in March, says Mercy Chege, programme director at Plan International Kenya, and there were cases of young women being preyed on by older men with spare cash.
“It is a shadow pandemic,” says Chege. “Out of school, the girls had much free, unsupervised hours where the allure of sex for pads was irresistible. The government used to give sanitary pads to girls while in school but failed to extend the services to their homes when schools closed, leaving the girls at the mercy of ‘friends with benefits’.
“Sometimes sex was in exchange for as little as the 15 Kenyan shillings (10p) required to pay for a daily shower in a public bathroom. Many would go for days without taking a bath and could do anything to appease someone who promised them such small luxuries.”
She adds: “A few girls were lured into child pornography. Perpetrators told them it was not wrong since they did not have to practise what they saw, but they didn’t know they were being sexually abused.” (MORE)