Education is a vital component of this empowerment, which is why we held a workshop for girls in the Kenswed empowerment program to provide them with knowledge on gender equality, the right to education, their own and their children’s hygiene, motherhood, and menstruation management.

‘Kuteguka sio kuvunjika guu,’ says a Swahili proverb. Even after an unintended teenage pregnancy, life goes on, and every girl has the right to finish her education as long as she is able. Existing data indicates to plenty of advantages for girls and women who get an education. According to a 2013 UNESCO research, if all women in developing countries completed secondary school, child mortality would be cut in half.

Nelson Mandela once said that ‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than how it treats its children’. ‘Thank you for giving me a chance to go back to school, I am happy– I want to become a nurse’, says Caroline. For her and other young mothers in the program it’s a second chance at rewriting their narratives, their needs and those of their kids are fully supported in the program.

Girls’ empowerment is critical to economic progress, political stability, and social transformation.