Late in the evening on 30th January 2013, Nadia (not her real name) is worried about what she will tell her parents after she found out that she was pregnant.
She is a form two student, and her parents are not only paying for her Kenyan secondary education but also struggling with her older siblings, one in form four, and the one that Nadia follows in form three. A household bundled up in a small house in an Eastlands residential area of Nairobi.
The Challenge
Teenage (adolescent) pregnancies, according to the Ministry of Health Kenya, has been identified as one of the three “Tripple threats” that girls face in Kenya. There was a sharp increase between 2024 – 2025 in the number of teenage mothers and adolescent pregnancies, according to the Kenya Economic Survey. Nairobi County is the leading, with an increase of 14.6% of ages 10 -14, in the same period.
Nadia’s main challenge was the struggles that she faced while living in the bundled up small household in the Eastlands area, with struggling parents who did not have adequate time to train her against the dangers of teenage pregnancies. Her parents were occupied with working extra hard to keep the family economically afloat.
One of the major challenges that forces teenage girls into such situations is due to the sting of poverty and inadequate sexual education, currently known as sexual reproductive health rights.
The journey.
Nadia safely gave birth towards the end of that year to a beautiful girl with the support of her parents, who despite that their teen daughter had conceived, could not cast her out to fend for herself.
However, tragedy struck end that year when her father passed away, leaving a struggling mother with the burden to fend for herself and the children.
Nadia had been offered a chance by her parents to return to school after giving birth. However, due to the birth process and her father passing away, the family’s finances were so constrained that she was unable to immediately return to school.
This forced her to relapse, and she conceived again.
Nadia never went back to complete her secondary education.
Her reason was plain and simple,
“I know that society has judged me in the way I have conceived twice while still a teenager in high school. My parents were first shocked at the news that I was pregnant, but they never cast me away. Instead, they encouraged me to give birth and continue with my education and they would support me, despite our economic challenges. Then after my dad died, my mom was alone to provide for our needs and I was really pained how she was struggling to provide for us as her children. I felt that I was a burden. My teachers in school never accepted me back to class as a normal student. Even those who I considered my friends, were making an example of me. This made me to go back to the man who made me pregnant the first time to try and find solace, and I ended up pregnant again. The man fled and refused to take responsibility. That is when I felt shameful that my world was shattered, and was unable to go back to school.”
Call to action
Nadia is one of the many teen mothers who have not had the privilege of completing their secondary school education due to shame, discrimination, societal stigma, and poverty.
Nadia believes that had she had the favorable environment to return to complete her secondary education, she would have been in a better position to provide a good future for her children, herself and her sacrificing mother.
She knows that education would have provided many opportunities for her, despite the circumstance that she was in.
This is why we exist as AMEN. To help such young ladies to overcome the societal stigma that they face through Christian based mentorship and empowerment, and even sponsoring their education.
It is in this respect that we make their stories ethically known that we may be able to rally many partners and well-wishers to stand with us to assist the girls and remind them that their stories are not too broken or messy to be rewritten.