Empowered Girls Initiative- Affiliate of Waterschool Canada

We are focused on changing traditional, degrading attitudes to young girls, and especially young mothers, in rural east Africa, while at the same time empowering these young girls to gain the skills to be productive members of their societies.  We want people to see that teen pregnancy is a terrible waste of a woman’s potential long term support for the community.  We have been very successful so far and we need more funds to expand our work.

I will use the award to advocate for adolescent mothers in various communities in Kenya and Uganda. Bring together community members and sensitizing them on the rights of adolescent girls. Educate adolescent girls on their rights to education, health, employment and give them skills to demand for these rights. Support adolescent mothers with education opportunities in vocational training and formal education. Initiate income generating activities. Network with other organizations and link these girls to other forms of support that would enable them to thrive and live dignified lives. Through this support communities will be triggered to discussing the plight of adolescent mothers and be encouraged to support these mothers to go back to school and realize their life dreams in education. 

My name is Jane Otai. I have witnessed the suffering of adolescent girls who become pregnant and drop out of school. From close family members to friends who dropped out in secondary school, I have witnessed girls suffering while the community blamed them for being irresponsible. These girls did not get an opportunity to go back to school. They ended up as house helps, bar tenders or cheap labor in farms. Most of them died of HIV, GBV or in child birth.  The men who were responsible for these pregnancies walked away scot-free. In most cases these men were married, the girl was as young as 14/15 years and she could not confront this man. Out of shame, she did not reveal the man responsible for this pregnancy. She was sent away from home, ending up in streets and from then on her life went down hill. This led me to become an adolescent health advocate. I have worked with Johns Hopkins University as an adolescent health advisor and written articles to raise this issue. My vision is to change retrogressive cultural and traditional practices which  disadvantage adolescent girls. Girls have rights to education, health and must be supported .

EGI is addressing challenges associated with adolescent pregnancy and its effects. Uganda adolescent pregnancy rate stands at 25% while Kenya has 22%.151,433 pregnancies were recorded in Kenya between January-May 2020 among adolescent girls aged 13-19. For these girls, this spells the end of education. Parents who struggle to pay school fees and meet other education needs are disappointed and are not willing to give them another chance. While the girls are blamed for this early pregnancy, communities have never addressed the drivers of this problem including: harmful practices, lack of adequate support for the girls to access education, lack of basic needs including sanitary pads, transport to school, meals and books. Men are ready to offer these items in exchange for sexual favors.

EGI addresses this challenge by educating girls on their rights , availing safe spaces in communities for girls to interact, holiday camps for skills training and linking girls to health facilities for information and services. EGI supports girls with access to formal and informal education. Graduates from vocational training are supported to initiate businesses. Mapping community resources, EGI ensures girls have access to other services-legal, police, loans, and GBV. EGI is unique in its holistic, grassroots approach

Lack of information, misinformation, insufficient information and myths are some of the reasons behind teenage pregnancy crisis. Young people are stigmatized when they try to access condoms or other forms of contraceptives. Health providers treat them as minors with no right to reproductive health services. The effect of this is that they continue to engage in unsafe sex practices. More than 500,000 girls accessed unsafe abortion services in 2012 with many of them ending up with fatal or life long complications. As of 2015, more than 50% of new HIV infections were among young people aged 15-24. This was double the number recorded in 2013  and 33% of these infections was among teenage girls

EGI innovates to disrupt the accepted practices that are harmful to adolescent girls. We address the legal barriers that compromise access to healthcare services among adolescents. We also address the retrogressive cultural practices that stigmatize adolescents access to reproductive health information and services. EGI promotes comprehensive sexuality education in school. EGI ensures statutory rape provisions are airtight so that minors below age 18 are protected from predator adults. Through EGI adolescents are aware of their human rights and demand for them. This is innovative and disruptive. 

Changing traditional degrading attitudes by elders to young girls into more supporting beliefs.  Instead of viewing these girls as drains on society, show the leaders that with skills, these girls can be a source of strength and support to their families.

We empower young girls by giving them information and knowledge about their rights.  We go further and give them education and/or skills to start businesses and earn money to support their families.

Working with churches, mosques, health facilities, schools and community leaders, we identify adolescent mothers who are keen on turning their lives for the better. Girls develop life plans and EGI supports them to achieve these life plans in education and vocational training. Parents and community members are sensitized on the rights of adolescent girls and asked to support these girls to go back to school and achieve their dreams. Adolescent mothers are supported to access an education. Graduates are supported with seed funds to initiate businesses while others are attached to mentors to gain more experience in specific trades.

Safe spaces are identified in communities where adolescent mothers meet and share challenges and solutions

EGI advocates for equality of access to opportunities and especially for adolescent mothers