A plan to help  girls caught up in poverty cycle free themselves

At the age of 14, Brenda Atieno* was married off to a complete stranger her father’s age.

The shy, young girl from a small village in Seme, Kisumu County, says her hopes of living her dreams have been dashed.

Atieno’s problems began a year earlier, when, thanks to her poor background, she fell prey to a young man who lured her with goodies.

“When I started having my monthly periods, my parents could not afford to buy them for me. I thought getting a boyfriend would help,” she recalls.

Her boyfriend was very kind and gave her money to buy the towels and other little necessities.

“Then, one day he said I should pay for the things he had been giving me, which I willing did. That’s how I got pregnant. I did it only, once,” Atieno says, playing with her fingers.

However, what she did not know then was that it was possible to get pregnant even if it was her first sexual encounter.

“I regret what I did. What worries me is that most girls get pregnant because they are naïve,” she says.

When Atieno’s mother sensed that her daughter was pregnant, she became hostile. So Atieno, then  in Form Two, ran away from home and went to live with an aunt when she was two months pregnant. However, after she had given birth, her aunt told her that she could no longer fend for the three of them, and that Atieno’s only option was to get married. 

“My aunt planned my marriage without my knowledge,” recalls Atieno.

She stops, sighs, plays some more with her fingers and then continues.

One day, she went to collect some money for her aunt some distance from home. When she came back, she found her husband-to-be’s parents waiting for her.

SERIES OF MISFORTUNES

“They were given my child and clothes, and I was told to go with them.

“I was too scared to refuse. I had no money so I couldn’t go back home. That’s how I married my husband of three years,” she explains. 

 Her husband promised to take her back to school when the child was older, but all she got whenever she brought up the matter was a thorough beating.

“I want to go back to school. I want a better life. I want to be like other girls. I don’t want to continue suffering,”  she says.

But Atieno’s case is not isolated. Jecinter Adhiambo*, who got married at the age of 12, says she has never known happiness. When you arrive at her home, you can be forgiven for thinking she is just one of the children in the homestead.

Adhiambo got married to escape from her step-father. 

“My step-father frustrated me and would sometimes deny me food,” she recalls tearfully, adding that he would make her bathe her younger siblings, do the washing, and clean the house before going to school. That left her very little time for school.  She eventually dropped out after he stopped paying her school fees. He often also  told her that she was not his biological child, a fact she later confirmed from her grandmother.

When she could no longer bear life at home, she sought solace in a neighbours’ farmhand, who later made her pregnant.

“I sought solace in the man because I could no longer bear the mistreatment by my father, and that’s how I got pregnant when I was 12,” she says sadly.

The 32-year-old man accepted responsibility for the baby and Adhiambo, terrified by the thought of what her step-father would do if he discovered that she was pregnant, moved in with the farmhand. However, when the baby was four months old, he abandoned her after receiving death threats from her step-father.

With no one else to turn to, Adhiambo went back to her parents. Her step-father remained as hostile as ever, so two months later, she married a man three times her age, thanks to her mother’s intervention.  Adhiambo’s mother confirms that she married off her daughter for the sake of peace in the home and also to protect her from the risk of more unwanted pregnancies.

“It was very painful giving my daughter to the old man but I had to,” she says quietly.

The marriage did not last, as Adhiambo soon ran away because he beat her frequently.

UNDERAGE BRIDES

Unfortunately,  tradition forbade her from going back her parents’ home because her older sister was not yet married.

“It was also believed that if she came back, she would have a negative influence on her sister, who was still in school. So she had to go to her grandmother’s place,” says her mother, breaking down in tears. 

It was at her grandmother’s place, that Adhiambo, now 16, met her current husband, Kennedy Otieno, 20.

“What I love about my husband is that he is humble and we understand each other very well,” she says.

Atieno and Adhiambo are among a growing number of teenage girls in the world married off by either their parents or guardians, denying them the chance to achieve their full potential.

“We need to talk about the risk of early marriages. We have experienced the negative  effects of the practice and would not wish  other innocent girls go through the same,” the two teenagers say.

In Kenya, one in four girls gets married before the age of 18. The preliminary results of the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014 show that child marriages are common in the country, with the prevalence of early childbearing being highest in Nyanza, followed by the Rift Valley and the Coast; it is lowest in the central and north-eastern parts of the country.

The survey indicates that more than three out of 10 uneducated women between the ages 15 and 19 have begun having children, compared with only 12 per cent of those who have a secondary or higher level of education.

It also says that teenagers from poor households are more likely to have begun childbearing (26 per cent) than those from wealthier households (10 per cent).

A report by the international NGO, Save the Children, on Jordan titled Too Young to Wed indicates that one in every four marriages between Syrian refugees in the country involves a girl below 18. In 2011, the figure stood at 12 per cent. The number of married underage Syrian girls in Iraq has also increased, with more cases reported in Egypt and Turkey.

A number of international organisations report that child marriage often denies a girl her right to an education and leaves her far less able to take advantage of economic opportunities.

Ms Jane Godia, a gender activist, says that the proportion of teenagers who have begun childbearing in the country has not changed since the 2008-09 KDHS. She added that a lot needs to be done to reduce the figures.

Ms Godia noted that it is difficult to detemine the number of early marriages because many are not officially recorded.

To curb the practice, Plan International Kenya has come up with a programme in Nyanza and at the Coast, through which it  educates parents, teachers and young girls on the negative effects of early marriage. In addition, the organisation rescues underage brides. 

Mr Raphael Aoko, a programme unit manager with Plan International Kenya, said early marriages were common in rural areas, where parents readily marry off their daughters to get bride price.

In Kisumu, Plan International has an initiative known as Go Girls Advocate to campaign against early child marriages and educate the community on the disadvantages.

The initiative includes bringing young girls together, telling   them the importance of completing their education, and getting married only when their bodies are fully developed.

“The issue of early marriages and pregnancies is a time bomb in Nyanza that needs to be addressed,” said Mr Aoko.

“It is not normal that young girls get pregnant and people see nohting unusual about  it. Someone has to take responsibility,” he added.

However, Mr Aoko said the organisation faces a number of obstacles in its fight against the practice. In some instances, he said, parents cover up for their children, and those in the know decline to testify, so the culprits go scot free.

“At times the parents are compromised and refuse to tell the truth,” said Mr Aoko.

GENERATIONAL CURSE

“But we must put a stop to early marriages and allow girls to grow up and  succeed  society,” he added.

He noted that some communities do not take girls’ education seriously but remained optimistic that, in line with this year’s theme for the Day of the African Child, “Accelerating collective efforts to end child marriage in Africa,” the future is promising.

Meanwhile, Beatrice Auma, a children’s rights officer in Kisumu County, says most of the marriages involving underage girls take place during the August and December school holidays. 

“So far this year, we have received 12 cases of early marriages. Lack  of safe places to house the girls after they have been rescued is the greatest challenge due to pressure from their families and the community,” she said.

A research by Plan  in 2012 titled Because I Am a Girl found that the child marriage prevalence rate is 42 per cent  in Kisumu County, 38 per cent in Homa Bay and 29.5 per cent in Bondo.

It also found showed that girls with no education were more than three times likely to get married before the age of 18 than those with a secondary or higher level of education.

The practice is perpetrated through generations, such that the daughters of young, uneducated mothers are more likely to drop out of school and get married before they reach 18.

The study showed that girls who had married young  reported a number of challenges, ranging from  lack of financial and emotional support, to lack of support with child care and household chores.

They are also more likely to be subject to violence and abuse, with potentially life-threatening consequences.

Meanwhile, a study the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund on the practice found that it often inflicts physical and emotional anguish on young girls and deprives them of the right to free and full consent to marriage and the right to education.

It linked early marriage to health risks due to premature pregnancy. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of death worldwide among girls between the ages of 15 and 19.

The children born to these young girls are more likely to be underweight and are lucky to survive beyond the age of five, which partially explains the high child mortality rates.

Thanks to the initiative by Plan International Kenya, Atieno and Adhiambo, who are part of the “Go Girls Advocate initiative”, now speak proudly of how other girls  in their villages want to be like them.

Some have since gone back to school to realise their dreams.

“A lot of unpleasant things happen if you marry young,” said Atieno and Adhiambo, who want to become a salonist  and journalist respectively.        

They are at the forefront to the campaign against early marriage,  educating girls on the importance of getting an education and the disadvantages of marrying young.

“Once you get married, your husband will not allow you to continue with your education because he will want children, and you will be the one to look after them,” said one of the girls.

Notably, marrying an underage girl is a crime in the country, and those who do so can be jailed.

* The girls names have been changed.