“Sewing” the Seeds of a Brighter Future for Teen Moms

Written by TGE Volunteer, Barbara Kohn

Teenage pregnancy is a societal challenge in Kenya, where 13,000 girls drop out of school due to pregnancy every year and one in three adolescents is either pregnant or has started the childbearing process.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this already significant challenge. In April of 2020, when Kenya introduced strict preventive measures to try to control the spread of the coronavirus, which included restricting movement and closing schools, access to sexual and reproductive health services became much harder. Furthermore, the economic hardship pushed some girls into transactional sex to survive.

However, even before COVID, teenage mothers faced a very hostile cultural environment. Many pregnant young girls are thrown out from their homes. They become homeless and are rejected in schools. In other cases, they are sent away until they deliver the baby because by becoming pregnant, they become an “eyesore” to their families. They have to drop out of school to take care of themselves and the baby when it is born.

Meeting the challenge of teen pregnancy

Njoo Dada Trust, located in the suburbs of Nairobi and which means “Come, Sister” in Swahili, is a registered Kenyan non-profit organization that has worked for many years with adolescents. In 2014, Njoo Dada started a program to address the challenge of teenage mothers. The Njoo Dada program works with these mothers to ensure that they have rights and a decent standard of living. In extreme cases where the girls are rejected by their families, they stay at the organization's safe house. All services are offered for free.

Njoo Dada’s overall objective is to provide a secure and stable environment for vulnerable teenage mothers and instill hope in them so that they can meaningfully reintegrate into society.  To achieve this, Njoo Dada requires that the girls complete their primary/secondary education or acquire a skill through training, such as baking, farming or other hand skills.

The Trust supports the teenage mothers after they give birth by placing them in schools and colleges, paying the requisite fees, buying books, uniforms and training equipment. Ongoing follow-up and psychosocial support aim to ensure the girls do not drop out of school. For those in college, once they successfully complete their training, the Trust works to place them in jobs or encourages self-employment.

TGE Gets Involved

Last year, TGE reached out to Lunar, the mother of Njoo Dada Trust, to see what we could do to help during this crisis time. In 2017, we provided the Trust with a stove.  Lunar asked for a donation of sewing machines, both simple and commercial, for the ten girls residing at the safe house to learn and practice sewing, which would provide them with a skill to enter society and the workforce when their babies arrive. In the meantime, the girls would sew bags to raise money to help defray their rent and school and medical fees.

We sent Peninah, our local TGE project coordinator, into Nairobi to purchase the five best sewing machines at the best prices for the Trust.  Peninah settled on Singer sewing machines for the simple equipment, at a cost of $200 each, and Juki at $350 per machine for the commercial equipment needs. Peninah also purchased tape measures, seam rippers, tailor chalk and scissors, rulers, extra bobbins and needles and thread as well as an overlock machine and industrial iron box, so that the program was fully equipped with all needed accessories and auxiliary equipment.

Also, as part of the program, the girls have the opportunity to practice with a tailor every week.  Eventually, the Trust hopes to establish a trade school to teach sewing. 

In addition to learning this technical skill, Lunar and TGE agreed on the importance of providing practical entrepreneurship and personal finance management training. In a second phase of the program, which just started in June this year, TGE has partnered with the ROSE Women’s Foundation to provide the Njoo Dada program participants with business training to better prepare them for financial empowerment and self-sustainability.

Support the program

If you would like to support the Njoo Dada Trust, your contribution will go toward the training program we are launching with the ROSE Women’s Foundation. For a donation of $85.00 or more (including shipping), you can select one of the high-quality tote bags made by the girls.