How I bounced back to school after childbirth
Grace Neema, a young mother of one and a former student at Oldonyo Nyokie Girls Secondary School in Magadi, Kajiado County, advises young girls to shun teenage pregnancies.
What you need to know:
- Her return to school reignited her dreams and the hope that a second chance at education would yield a better future.
- She now hopes to join teacher training institute to realise her career dream.
- Her motherhood journey began when she fell pregnant in 2019, then aged 17 and in Form Three at Sajiloni Girls Secondary School in Kajiado Central.
Twenty-two-year-old Grace Neema has been away from school for a year now after sitting the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam at Oldonyo Nyokie Girls Secondary School in 2022.
“I have been working on and off as a casual labourer for a company in Dagoretti,” she explains.
The firstborn in a family of six uses the little she earns to support her young daughter, and parents back home in Inkiwanjani village, Ilookilani ward, Kajiado West.
Her motherhood journey began when she fell pregnant in 2019, then aged 17 and in Form Three at Sajiloni Girls Secondary School in Kajiado Central.
“Being a teen mother was a struggle, it came with shock, disappointment and regrets,” she recollects.
“I was out of school for some two years between 2019 and 2021 and life was tough. Taking care of the pregnancy, and the newborn was not easy because I did not have money. I also felt as though I had let my parents down. They were disappointed as they didn’t expect such from me.”
What came to her mind was marriage. “I felt as though my dreams had been shattered,” she says.
But after talking to a friend, Everline Nanetia, in 2021, her mind changed and she was yearning to go back to school, but not her previous school.
“I couldn’t stand the guilt of going back to the same school as a teen mother. I felt ashamed and I was not ready to handle the profiling that came with being a teen mother. I needed an environment where I could start afresh.
“I walked into Oldonyo Nyokie Girls Secondary School and explained to the principal that I had messed up my life, and I needed a second chance to realise my dreams. She welcomed me like a mother. This gave me hope and renewed my dreams,” she says.
At Oldonyo Nyokie Girls Secondary School in Kajiado County, Grace met many other girls who had been in similar predicament. Some of them were teen mothers, while others had been rescued from early marriages.
This reignited her dreams and the hope that a second chance in education would yield a better future.
But given that she had no school fees, she was always in and out of school. As a result, “I did not manage to get the grades that I wanted in my final examinations,” she states, her eyes narrowing.
Being sent home for school fees had previously seen her get pregnant, she says.
“Without school fees, I was idle at home and that had contributed to my becoming pregnant at an early age. Peer pressure also came in when I knew that my friends had boyfriends that they were also seeing. I decided to also try.”
The pregnancy, she says, affected her academic life and mental health.
“This reflected on my academic performance, which I had neglected. I have several times told myself that if it was not for the teenage pregnancy, I would have earned a better grade.”
Her voice is slow, her face full of regrets, but she still hopes that one day she will realise her dream of becoming a teacher so that she can educate other girls on the dangers of early pregnancy and effects of female genital mutilation (FGM).
“After finishing Form Four, I was hoping to join college, but this has not been the case. I still have a school fee balance, over Sh50,000, to clear. I wanted to be a teacher but my dream is still pending.”
FGM is something that the community should fight. “I urge my community to do away with FGM as it really wastes time and futures of girls. I have not undergone FGM, but I went through early pregnancy.”
She can already visualise herself running an organisation to educate young girls on reproductive health, the dangers of FGM and teenage pregnancies so that they can realise the future that they want.
She advises other young girls to avoid early pregnancy.
“Early pregnancy will push you backwards academically, socially and economically. It affects the mental health of teenage girls.
“I need support to clear my fee balance, and to continue with education.”
