I realized I was the same age as many of these girls when I was pregnant in high school. I also could empathize and understand their lack of emotional and relational support. Many of their parents also had an addiction. We were caught in the same mess and missing something we really needed. Yet, there was an enormous difference in the outcome of our futures.

Was God going to use my past and teen pregnancy?

I had no idea how. I had carried it with shame for a long time in certain spaces. I was proud of my family but not necessarily how I got there.

God has a way of taking what was supposed to(or did) break us to bring us to Him and then using it for His ultimate Glory.

He is ultimately the reason I had a connection with teen girls in Kenya. I could feel the tears burn in my eyes, and I was totally distracted. But I quickly pushed them down and kept going. The sun was going down, and we needed to finish. I would have to process it another time. Later, I made a little post about that moment like any good Gen X would. Many people commented and asked for the whole story.

What does my 25-year-old have to do with Flourish Kenya?

We are sharing the story of Mary’s rescue from FGM and child marriage in conjunction with our ENOUGH campaign. She is enough reason for all of us to say, “Enough is enough!” Together, we have more than enough resources to eradicate FGM, child marriage, and gender-based violence.

Learn more at flourishkenya.org/enough.

The view from the front lines of the war on teen pregnancy: Community Dialogues dig up buried issues in the interior of Transmara
Recent statistics from the Ministry of Health unveiled a new tragic reality for Kenya: we are now ranked #3 in the WORLD for teen pregnancy. In response, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe stated in a speech given on 14 July 2022, “We must rescue the affected girls and ensure they are taken back to school while building a solid community system that will end these challenges at the County and national levels. The era of looking the other way and letting perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence walk scot-free must end. Let us have constructive community dialogues that provide solutions.”

Grow in awareness with us today, the International Day of the African Child. Flourish Kenya is working primarily to end the teen pregnancy epidemic in rural Kenya, demanding a secondary focus on ending FGM and child marriage.