#whySHEmatters

Lack of SRHR services and information continue taking lives of young women and girls in Kenya

 By Esther W. Kimani  - Executive Director YWLI 

“I am so afraid I do not know what to do, I wish I was more careful, what got into me really?”  troubled young woman in Kenya.

The other night I went to visit my friend who had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Since the hospital was on the other side of the town, the bus took a long time to get to the central business district. It had rained heavily, flooding parts of town. Despite getting drenched, or perhaps because of, my small umbrella, I decided to go to a nearby fast food restaurant to eat. I was sure I wanted take away to go eat from home but when I found an empty table upstairs I begun eating my garden salad with grilled chicken. Sitting beside my table were two young women in their early twenties. They were excited and speaking in high tones, having fun. Sitting there alone munching my food I could not help but overhear their juicy conversation.  It felt bad to know that I was eavesdropping on their discussion, however I kept listening.

They are both local university students. One is dating a rich man who has decided to buy her a car and she is very excited about it. In the middle of the conversation, she whispered, “What do you think I should do about the pregnancy?”.  Let’s call them Abby and Ally. Abby is pregnant and about to receive a car from this man. She is excited but at the same time afraid because she is not sure what to do with her unplanned pregnancy. Ally told her, “I know that nurse in Kariobangi (one of Kenya’s urban informal settlements) who will help us. She helped so many other girls.”

“Is it safe?” Abby asked. “I am not sure,” says Ally, “however it is the best option since we cannot go to other hospitals. If you tell Abel (Abby’s rich male friend) he will not accept responsibility and will not buy you the car.” From the side of my eye I could see how afraid and shaken Abby was. In a low tone she asks, “What if I die in the process? What will happen to me? Do I have any options? Why wasn’t I careful? How can I continue with my studies? Am I a bad person? What will happen to me if I decide to keep it?”

Sitting there I thought to myself, this is one of the many lived realities of young women and girls in Kenya. With lack of access to information and services about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, many of them make bad choices in such circumstances and end up losing their lives from unsafe abortions.

Statistics indicate that 29,000 abortions happen every year in Sub-Saharan Africa - translating to over 79 deaths every day. These lives can be saved. According to a 2012 study by the African Population and Health Research Center and its partners, in collaboration with  Ipas and the Guttmacher Institute, found that nearly 465,000 induced abortions occurred in Kenya in 2012 - translating to a high national abortion rate of 48 a per 1,000 women of reproductive age (15-49 years). The findings also revealed that complications from unsafe abortions continue to pose a serious threat to women’s health: nearly 120,000 women received care in health facilities for complications resulting from unsafe abortions in 2012. More shocking is that, young women suffered disproportionately, 45 percent of women aged 19 and younger who went to a health facility for post-abortion care had experienced severe complications.

With a constitution that allows abortion only to save a woman’s life, and when performed by a health professional, many young women still lack access to comprehensive safe abortion care services and information. If people do not start speaking out about these issues, many young women and girls like Abby will continue losing their lives. If we do not demand action from the duty bearers, then we will continue having these gruesome statistics. The journey to change these realities and findings needs to start early, during adolescence. Abby’s life and many other women and girls in the same situation need to be saved, that is #whySHEmatters #WhatNereaShouldKnow.

Imagine Abby, Ally and all young women in their early teens, Imagine if they had all the information needed in regards to their sexuality; Imagine them living in a country that has safe abortion services; Imagine them not worrying about unplanned pregnancies because they are empowered with information and have access to contraceptives; Imagine them actualizing their dreams. Wouldn't this be a safe space and country for them? Wouldn't they participate fully in development of the country? Wouldn't they make informed choices about their sexuality? The answer is Yes they Will and this is #TheKenyaWeWant #TheAfricaWeWant #The WorldWeWant.

 Young Women's Leadership Institute (YWLI) is one of the four partner institutes of the African Centers of Excellence (ACE) for Women's Leadership program run by the Institute of International Education (IIE) , Ethiopia Office.

For more on IIE , ACE or YWLI please follow the links below.
www.iie.org/
www.iie.org/en/Programs/ACE-for-Womens-Leadership, 

www.ywli.org  

Join WISE, Work Hard and Change your Life

I was born in Wollo, a town located in the North Eastern part of the country in a village called ‘Kallem’. Even though it is a rural area, I had a pleasant upbringing since my parents had a good financial status. However, I dropped out of school at the age of 13 on fourth grade and went to Arsi (Central Ethiopia) to take care of my sister during her maternity where I stayed for four years. I then came to Addis Ababa, got married and became a mother of five.

I found married life to be very difficult. My husband used to work in construction and our life was hand to mouth. I am a hard working woman from early age and have been engaged in selling different goods moving from place to place and Injera (local bread) at home to be able to send my children to school. But, I was not able to ease the financial burden; life was very difficult.

At one point, I was able to borrow $3,000 (~$200) to start a business to prepare and sell red pepper (“Berbere”) in a small shop and that was when my neighbors for the first time told me about Women in Self Employment (WISE). I joined one of the saving and credit associations (SACCO’s) named ‘Tinsae’ in the year 2012. After I took the Basic Business Skills training offered at WISE, I took the first round of Birr 1000 (~$66) loan and bought various goods for my shop. Using the second round loan, I reconstructed my shop and enlarged the window to fit the business purpose. A little while later, I took Birr 5,000 (~$330) loan and expanded my business to avail more goods. I was able to pay back each loan in a short period of time and took advantage of subsequent rounds of loans.

Besides the Basic Business Skills training, I took Leadership, Health and other trainings. The trainings helped me a lot in terms of enabling me to critically evaluate my life. The trainings helped me understand that I waste my time unnecessarily doing staff not worthy wasting my time over. Hence after the trainings, I started using my time consciously, started saving and was able to manage my income and handle my customers properly. I realized that customer handling has its own contribution to the success of any business. I also acquired knowledge that health is an asset for any business woman thus I started taking care of myself.

Currently, I borrowed Birr 12,000 ($600) and my saving has reached Birr 8,000 ($400). Additionally, I am able to save Birr 200 birr ($10) every month for a condominium house to be allotted by the government and Birr 200 ($10) per week in my Ikub (a traditional rotating saving).

I have a plan to expand my business and to change myself even better and more rapidly. Thus, I am saving more amount of money in my cooperative than is expected of me. I have remarkable changes in my life. My shop was very small and I started my pity- trade long ago selling charcoal. Now, I have expanded the business availing more goods and have many customers. I renovated my house with material worth Birr 4,000 ($200). The loan I took is now fully paid back, I even am serving in the leadership committee in my SACCO and all of my children are employed. I also have a business license and I am a legal tax payer!

From the changes in my life, the one thing that gives me the most satisfaction is that I am not dependent on my now grown up children for support and that I will be independent even at an old age. This is due to WISE and the trainings it offers. I love those trainings and would even like to get more in the future as well.

My future plan is to be a wholesaler; to open a big shop operated with additional employees. I want to continue sharing my story to others. Once, I was destitute to the point where I was forced to sell my gold earrings. For stay at home women, the advice I want to give is ‘Join WISE, Work Hard and Change Your Life!’

Almaz Messele

 From Tinsae Saving and Credit cooperative

Women in Self Employment (WISE) is one of the four partner institutes of the African Centers of Excellence (ACE) for Women's Leadership Program run by the Institute of Intenrational Education (IIE), Ethiopia Office 

For more on IIE , ACE or WISE please follow the links below.

www.iie.org/

www.iie.org/en/Programs/ACE-for-Womens-Leadership, www.wise.org.et/