In sub-Saharan Africa more than six million pregnant and parenting girls are out of school – and few go back after giving birth. Here’s how the barriers to girls’ schooling can be broken down to help keep young moms in class.
For the past five years, about 130,000 adolescent girls have given birth in South Africa each year – it means one in every seven babies is born to a teenager.
This challenge crosses South Africa’s borders.
In east and southern Africa, a quarter of young women give birth before they’re 18, with the teen pregnancy rate in the region at 92 per 1,000 girls, twice the global average. Moreover, six in 10 girls are not in school.
Other social issues add to this: close to 80 million girls experience sexual violence before they turn 18, and about 3,100 in the 15 to 24 age group acquire HIV every week.
Research shows that one of the best ways to help adolescent moms build a life for them and their babies is to keep them in school – and most importantly, help them to finish secondary school.
Because when young moms finish school, they tend to have more job opportunities, and better health – for themselves and their children.
But restrictive policies, stigma and discrimination, and financial hardships can stop mothering…
