A growing number of young girls in the Machakos slum area of Nairobi have become pregnant during COVID-19. Many of the girls struggle with feelings of shame and guilt. Through poetry, we want to give these girls an opportunity to process these feelings and come out stronger on the other side.
As a consequence of COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed in Kenya due to the pandemic, we are seeing an increase in teenage pregnancies, especially among young girls in the slums around Nairobi. Several of the girls we meet have offered sexual favours in exchange for money or food in an attempt to help their families survive. Others have experienced sexual abuse on the street or by family members.
We now know that pregnancy for a young girl in Kenya means that all schooling stops and very few return to school. We also know that pregnancy and childbirth in the impoverished slums pose great risks for young girls.
What the girls have in common is that they carry heavy feelings of shame and guilt while dealing with the new responsibility of becoming someone's mum. As if it wasn't enough for a young girl to carry all this, the majority also experience being kicked out of home and excluded from the local community.
Poetry as a method
From previous projects, we have learnt that poetry and artistic expression have a unique ability to help people process difficult and traumatic experiences and emotions. It also helps to create unique communities that last long into the future. It has also proven to be a powerful tool for humanising our target groups to decision-makers. In several of our projects, poems, songs and other artistic products are used to fight for the rights of children and young people.
In this project, 15 young mothers are given the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings through a poetry workshop organised in collaboration with our partner Positive Life Kenya and Poetry House.
Leading the House of Poetry is Karen Siercke who will lead the workshop in Nairobi. In addition to empowering the 15 young mothers through poetry writing, Karen will also help build PLK's capacity to run similar workshops in the future. After the poetry workshop, the poems will be compiled into a poetry collection that our partner Positive Life Kenya, in collaboration with the 15 young mothers, will share with local communities, government officials, NGOs, educational institutions and other decision makers.
