Review of Documented Literature on Policies, Programs and Services in Kenya by Dr. Teresa Mwoma; ECD Department; Kenyatta University
Dr. Teresa Mwoma, of the Department of Early Childhood in Kenyatta University partners with PAN to review the status of Adolescents with parenting responsibilities.
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Kenya review by Dr. Teresa Mwoma, Dept of ECD, KU
1.
2. In the family children are shaped and
prepared to face external world.
Protection, upbringing and development of
children rests with the family.
Parenting influence acquisition of behavior
and social skills that shape the moral, self
discipline and responsibilities of young
children.
3. Increasing number of young adolescents are
getting into parental responsibilities prematurely.
Consequently a focus on teenage parenting is
necessary to:
Understand realities and
Challenges adolescents with parenting
responsibilities face in raising children as they
continue to achieve their goals and aspirations.
4. Identify existing information on this group of
youth in relation to;
policies/legislations,
Programs and
Challenges
5. Birth rate among adolescents in Kenya above
100 births per 1,000 among adolescents
aged 15–19
26% of all women in Kenya become mothers
or pregnant for the first time by age 18 (KNBS
& ICF Macro 2010).
This situation has a major implication on
national development especially on the
poverty reduction realm.
6. Adolescent parenthood is closely associated with
low educational achievement,
increased dependence on governmental support
by the adolescent mother,
increased infant mortality and low birth weight.
Such outcomes often lead to increased societal
expenditure and a major cause of perpetual cycle
of poverty.
7. Current estimates indicate that between
10,000 to 13000 girls drop out of school
each year due to pregnancy alone.
Report by the Center for Study of
Adolescents-Counting the costs of teenage
pregnancy and school dropout in Kenya.
8. Return to school policy in 1994 and later
revised it in 2009.
The policy allows pregnant girls to stay in
school as long as they possibly can and
resume as soon as they are strong after birth.
In addition, it requires schools to establish
centers where the teenage mothers can
breast feed their babies as they go to school.
9. Balancing between chores and school work
(Nelima, 2011).
Finding someone to look after their babies to
return to school.
Some girls expelled from school when discovered
to be pregnant (Muganda and Omondi, 2008)
Cultural factors like fathers being decision
makers on whether to go back to school
10. Embarrassment of teasing and taunting from
their peers.
Young unmarried teenage mothers viewed as
both immoral and incapable students at the
neighbourhood.
This at times discourages parents from
supporting the young mothers from returning
to school.
11. To address concerns on health and development of
adolescents, the Adolescent Reproductive Health and
Development Policy (ARH&D) 2003 adopted to:
Bring adolescent health issues into the mainstream of
health and development in order to improve on their
quality of life and well being.
Its health targets include to: increase the proportion
of facilities offering basic essential obstetric care to
adolescents and youth from 15% to 30% and
comprehensive essential obstetric care from 9 % to
18 % by the year 2015.
12. Increase the proportion of mothers below age
25 delivering in a health facility from baseline
to 60% by the year 2015.
However, the policy does not explicitly
outline its health targets for adolescents with
parenting responsibilities
13. Among the programs that support adolescents
with parenting responsibilities in Kenya,
Young Mothers Kenya and
Hope for the Teenage Mothers.
Young Mothers Kenya target vulnerable
adolescent girls to equip them with necessary
skills for a socioeconomically sustainable life.
14. To achieve this objective, the program focuses on
capacity building of young mothers in communication
skills, child care and child rights.
The program also focuses on reproductive health,
HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.
It equips young mothers with skills on home nursing,
micro credit and entrepreneurship among others.
In addition, the program is running a tailoring
training to empower the teen mothers economically.
15. Hope for Teenage Mothers project targets young
girls who drop out of school due to teenage
pregnancies.
The project also targets children born by the
teenage young mothers in Embakasi and
Dagoreti districts.
The main aim of the program is to enable
teenage mothers develop economic
independence through entrepreneurship and
microfinance training.
16. Information on the successes, challenges was
scanty for the two programs
Apart from the return to school policy, the
policies on psychosocial support, childcare
skills
Teenage boys with parenting responsibilities
especially if parents have died
Teenage fathers not much information