From teen mum to mentor: Rebecca’s journey through domestic violence and depression
Rebecca Kemunto outside Children Sweetness of Love Foundation offices at Geteri in Nyaribari Masaba, Kisii County, on January 10, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Early pregnancy was an express ticket for parents at Geteri in Nyaribari Masaba, Kisii County, to marry off their daughters.
- But her parents took a compassionate path. They looked after her daughter as she returned to school to finish her studies.
When Rebecca Kemunto had a child at 16, she knew the next phase of life was marriage.
Early pregnancy was an express ticket for parents at Geteri in Nyaribari Masaba, Kisii County, to marry off their daughters.
But her parents took a compassionate path. They looked after her daughter as she returned to school to finish her studies.
Upon finishing high school at the age of 18 years, she got married hoping for a blissful union similar to her parents’.
It turned out to be just a wish. For three years, she endured domestic violence until she couldn't take it anymore.
In 2016, she left the marriage with a son.
“I left the marriage a different person. I was so depressed and lost. I had officially become a single parent with two children to take care of.”
Later, a local nongovernmental organisation (NGO) absorbed her into their counselling and empowerment programme.
“They counselled me and helped me start a business,” she says.
“They bought me two sacks of Irish potatoes and two mesh bags of bulb onions. I ran the business for six months before they employed me as a mentor.”
She would speak with the girls, some of whom were either pregnant or mothers, as well as women who had undergone, or were undergoing, domestic violence.
“We could take them through the process of discovering themselves and building their self-esteem. The many who had hated themselves finally got to value themselves.”
For a year, she mentored many. But with the responsibility of raising two children, she knew she needed adequate resources to comfortably provide for them.
Domestic work
In September 2019, she left for Saudi Arabia to take up a domestic work job.
While in the Middle East, her thoughts roamed over the many teenage mothers and young women raising their children single-handedly.
Right then, she made a promise to herself to extend the help she got.
For the two years (2019–21) she lived in the Arab country, she would send her father a portion of her Sh24,000 salary to buy sanitary towels for girls in three schools spread across Nyaribari Masaba and Bobasi in Kisii County.
“I started with buying 15 pupils, including boys and girls, uniforms.”
When she returned home in November 2021, she registered a community-based organisation named Children Sweetness of Love Foundation, guided by the motto: Selflessness and love leads the way.
So selfless she is that she treks to deliver pads to the girls, and ankle socks to the boys. All her financial support comes from her family and friends.
She says her work requires tenacity to succeed as fundraising is tough. From her office at Geteri junction, she counsels distressed teenage and young mothers, as well as abused women.
She also supports orphanages in the two sub-counties with the sanitary towels. Besides girls, she mentors boys.
Her vision is to run sustainable empowerment programmes that would include a change in the community’s attitude towards teenage mothers, and promote access to vocational skills.
“As we talk, I don’t have funding to promise anything long term. If I had a funder to hold my hand, I’d do a lot and change many lives,” she says.
“Like now, I have only managed to provide 3,000 girls with pads, but the demand for the supply is huge.”
Her greatest challenge is lack of support from the community. “They say what can a 'child' tell us? What does she know?” says the 28-year-old Rebecca.
