Not Everyone is Celebrating International Day of the Girl Child
Circumstances are worsening for teens in Narok County, Kenya
As the world unites to celebrate the potential, capacity, and empowerment of the girl child, somewhere in Narok county, a twelve-year-old girl awaits justice after bravely reporting defilement. She had been left to look after her younger siblings while her parents looked for work in order to feed the family. As the girl suffers quietly, she wonders, “Am I going to get a baby? Will I be forced to marry that evil man? Am I now positive?”
Not far from her, a teen mother leaves her sleeping toddler to prostitute herself at the town bar in order to feed herself and her child. Rejected by her family after becoming pregnant at 15, this young girl is destined for a life of trauma, poverty, and sickness.
About five kilometers away, in a remote village, a 14-year-old who has already been forced to undergo FGM sleeps in the bushes. She has run away from home to escape being married to a village elder. She had thus far postponed her fate of marrying early by performing well in school. Food scarcity, paired with cultural tradition, pushed her parents to look for a dowry.
Not everyone is celebrating International Day of the Girl. Many can never imagine uttering this day’s 10th-anniversary theme, “Our time is now—our rights, our future!”
According to the UN, “The profound effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are putting girls at higher risk of early marriage due to a combination of economic shocks, school closures and interruptions in reproductive health services.” 1
Circumstances are ever worsening in the rural towns and villages of Narok County. Families who were struggling to survive pre-pandemic have suffered devastating losses since 2020. Now, with the crippling effects of inflation, many are left in unimaginably desperate situations, leaving children and teens in peril.
As we raise awareness and proceed with great hope for every girl child, let us not forget the 40% of girls in Transmara who will or have already begun bearing children before entering secondary or becoming a candidate for the KCSE. Let us remember the girls who have no say in what happens to them— their bodies or their futures.
Since 2016, a Kilgoris-based CSO called Flourish Kenya has been combating harmful actions against girls and fighting for the bright futures they deserve. Through comprehensive SRH Education in more than 50 area schools, hosting Community Dialogues, presenting Alternative Right of Passage seminars and Girls’ Mentorship programs, and providing secondary school sponsorships.
Determined to set up a rescue center for girls like the ones mentioned above, Flourish Kenya is seeking partners for joint funding proposals and calling on everyone working in the SRHR space, specifically on ending FGM/C, child marriage, and teen pregnancy, to come together and cooperate for the good of all teens in Kenya. Please contact Christine Lemiso, Administrator at christine@flourishkenya.org with pitches for partnership or funding leads.
Flourish Kenya is a women-led, grassroots organization that is ending the teen pregnancy epidemic in rural Kenya in this generation by improving sexual and reproductive health literacy, providing secondary school sponsorships, and protecting teens in crisis because every youth deserves to flourish. Learn more at flourishkenya.org.
United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day
