Young Strong Mothers Foundation (YSMF)

I survived from teen pregnancy at the age of 15, denied by the man responsible who promised to pay for my tuition fees and support me with all educational materials and basic needs because my grandfather couldn't afford to take care of all that, kicked out by family, giving birth from the forest alone without medical support and continue living on the street as a single young mother with my child without family, social or government support. Having no parenting skills or idea of motherhood. Having no education or skills to be employed or self employed. Experiencing sexual abuse and discrimination 

I walked the same path most of teenage mothers walk today, I created a desire to start Young Strong Mothers Foundation with the vision of seeing vulnerable young mothers and their children have access to opportunities to become self-reliant in support of their own well-being and human dignity. 

Teen mothers in Tanzania are group of invisible, cursed young women that no one sees a need to invest in and denied many opportunities including education. Nobody even cares about the crisis that can be caused by tending to be blind like increase of a new spread of HIV/AIDS because many of the girls have only the option of sex business to survive and care for their children, increasing the number of uneducated and dependent women. All these and more pin up to gender based violence, continuously poverty and more children living in the street. I work to empower teen mothers economically through training in employable skills and knowledge that  increase in earnings to become self-reliance so that they can have access to opportunities to have human dignity. With mental health awareness project will help them to become mentally stable and over come the trauma that they live in. 

The adolescent birth/fertility rate is the number of births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19. Tanzania has the 17th highest adolescent fertility rate in Africa.1 The adolescent fertility rate has increased from 116 to 132 between the 2010 and 2015/16 Demographic Health Surveys (TDHS). Teenage pregnancy has also increased by 4 per cent in Tanzania since 2010; by 2016 one in four adolescents aged 15-19 had begun childbearing. Teenagers in rural areas are considerably more likely to have begun childbearing than their urban

counterparts because of high rate of poverty, gender inequality and social norms,child marriage, separation of parents, lack of right information on sexual and reproductive health, gender based violence and uneducated parents are factors contributing to teen pregnancy in Tanzania. 

Morogoro Municipal has 29 wards, YSMF managed to reach, register and support 1025 teenage mothers age 13-18 in 8 ward of Morogoro Municiapl. 

I am working to solve teen mothers discrimination and contributing the millennium sustainable development goals especially goal 1-5 by not leaving teen mothers and their children behind through awareness creation,train them for economic opportunities, match them to employment or self employment opportunities and then assess their impact. 

YSMF promote a well-being of teen mothers and their children so that they can re-build their lost dreams and human dignity through conducting advocacy and awareness creation on second chance to their desired life destiny, linking teen mothers with education opportunities focuses on vocational training centers, empowers teen mothers economically through training in employable skills and knowledge that enhances increase in earnings to enhance self-reliance in basic needs for mothers and their children, empowering adolescent girls and boys with life skills and information on sexual and reproduction health information to prevent HIV, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and prevention of unplanned pregnancies, providing training in child parenting and care skills to teen mothers including child nutrition programs, mental health and physical well-being, establishing a home of hope and life skill training, counseling and facilitation infrastructure for teen mothers and children, providing legal aid services to teen mothers in need of such service when pursuing for their rights and counsel poor families of teen mothers to support their girl children who dropped due to pregnancy to continue with secondary education second chance  to realize  their dream.

I directlyy build impact on vulnerable teen mothers and their children who live without family, social or government support denied opportunities, have no access to loans, cannot meet employment criteria and exposed to other problems which can completely slays their future and that of their children. Having walked the same path many teen mothers are walking today, gave me the ability and strength to understand their needs, pain, wishes and ability to do better if they are armed up. In YSMF board members I considered a representative of teen mothers who is a beneficiary who brings ideas, suggestions and contributions on behalf of the beneficiaries, we also engage them in workshop, seminars, group discussion and face to face interview to hear thought about any project planning to establish. By doing this has helped me come out with projects which are suitable to their needs, dreams, their children and community at large. My project addresses their needs in social, economic and health ways. 

I lost my parents while was a baby and raised by a single grandfather in the village. As a child i never many opportunities but my grandfather really loved me. I used to go hunting, farming and lived together. But all that died when i became pregnant at 15. I worked as a maid in many homes. Sexually abused, discriminated and denied opportunities. 

While I was working as maid, the last families was different and unique. They treated me like a child at home by listening to me, eating meals together and treated me with fairness.  Eventually they offered to support my secondary education. This gave me an opportunity to see the world from a different and larger perspective and I became aware of the gap between orphans, street children, teenage mothers and opportunities. I can up with this idea after managing to bare all the pain, fear, discrimination and being able to use well the opportunity i was given as the only golden chance to rebuild my life and build a good future for my daughter and myself. I realized that it is possible for other teen mothers too once they are given a second chance, shoulder or ear. 

The problem i am working hard to address is very important because it has helped mentally, gave me a chance to have a family with the people i meet in this work especially the teen mothers, gives me an opportunity to learn and change. This work is important because It gives me an opportunity to transform, empower, inspire, influence, advocate and change the teen mothers, families, societies and government. 

Addressing this problem helps me the raise the unheard voices of teen mothers who are unrecognized as important group in communities. It is important to me because i am contributing to the sustainable development goals especially goal 1-5

The pain of rejection by everyone, every where and fear of watching someone living the same life i experienced motivate me to work hard, knock many doors and become the fearless Jackie. 

Watching teen mothers change and become strive women, full of happiness and being independent motivates me a lot. 

Watching my daughter grow healthy, smart and doing well in school motivates me a lot to address the problem i am solving so that even the children of teen mothers can become strong, focused and health like my child Rose (18yrs) now.  

Apart from personal experience, I obtained various skills like communication skills, team work, computer skills, story telling and project management. I have a 5 years experience managing various projects for adolescent girls under prevention of teen pregnancy funded by Equality Now Organization in 2017/18, engaging the community in supporting teen mothers join vocation institute though contributing education materials to 240 teen mothers, supported more than 1000 teen mothers since YSMF was found, managed to get unrestricted fund from Segal Family Foundation 2019-2020 as phase 1 and 2020-2021 as phase 2 grants, managed to get funding from the Artur B. Schultz Foundation from February 2020 to December 2020 for empowering 20 teen mothers with tailoring and life skills training.  
I was selected to participate in 2019 Mandela Washington Fellowship in USA when i was transformed to bring changes, solve my community's problems and empowered to be leader who serves her community. 

Having the ability to connect with various individually, groups, organizational and other sectors has given me a chance to travel, gain national and international skills, build strong chain of friendship and partnership who offer financial contribution, resource mobilization for the targeted group and devote their time to offer technical support which creates confidence in me on the work that i do.

I have been advocating for the re-entry policy so that teen mothers can go back to school and continue with their studies. 

The government of Tanzania argues that encouraging teen mothers to go back to school will corrupt the morals of the rest of the students and encourage the vice. Some of statements which have been stated by different political leaders from 2015 to present deny the rights of girl child education. Education is a basic human right, The Constitution of Tanzania 1977, all these have been ignored. I crossed the lines and replied to the President of Tanzania on BBC media regarding his statement of denying teen mothers back to school. I never stopped until even spoke to the African Union meeting in Mali, speak in local radios and news papers, showcase my work and who teen mothers become after receiving various opportunities and the crisis coursed by those who are not supported. They had to consider teen mothers have a chance to join folk development community college for vocational skills.

I have been advocating for the re-entry policy so that teen mothers can go back to school and continue with their studies. 

The government of Tanzania argues that encouraging teen mothers to go back to school will corrupt the morals of the rest of the students and encourage the vice. Some of statements which have been stated by different political leaders from 2015 to present deny the rights of girl child education. Education is a basic human right, The Constitution of Tanzania 1977, all these have been ignored. I crossed the lines and replied to the President of Tanzania on BBC media regarding his statement of denying teen mothers back to school. I never stopped until even spoke to the African Union meeting in Mali, speak in local radios and news papers, showcase my work and who teen mothers become after receiving various opportunities and the crisis coursed by those who are not supported. They had to consider teen mothers have a chance to join folk development community college for vocational skills.