Teen Pregnancy: Be an Agent of Change
Meet Muhoza, a 14-year-old girl living in Kirehe, one of Rwanda’s districts with beautiful hills and lots of banana trees. She dreams of being the first in her family of eight to go to university. She leads a 'normal' life : she goes to school on weekdays and attends church every Sunday with her parents wearing colorful kitenge outfits, made by her mom. However, one morning, this life of reassuring milestones is shattered when she learns she has been pregnant for four months. Five months later, she gives birth to twins! Her world collapses.
Imagine for a moment how she feels. Everyone blames her and calls her a prostitute at home, church, and in her neighborhood. Not to mention that her parents are chasing her from the place she is supposed to call home! She is not only left alone with no support, but she now has a new and huge responsibility as a mother, and she is too scared to tell anyone about the man who got her pregnant. Her story is not unique. In 2021, there were 23,000 other girls like Muhoza in Rwanda, as reported by the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion.
In this difficult phase, however, Muhoza got a chance to join Resonate's Speak for Change program, an initiative that helps teenage mothers gain confidence to make informed choices, strengthen their agency and decision–making, and lower the risk of a second unintended pregnancy. At Resonate’s workshops, Muhoza met 400 other girls with unique yet similar stories. She has come to understand that she is not the only one to have suffered from this adversity, and for the first time, she found a safe space that gave her the confidence to share her story. That shift made her realize she cannot change the past but she can take control of her future and that of her twins.
She decides to hold on to her dream of going to university again, to further her education. However, since she doesn’t have anyone to leave her children with and is still nursing, she decides to start a small income-generating activity to support herself and return to school when they are a few years older.
With the transport allowance received from attending the Resonate program, she starts selling avocados in front of her home. With determination and newfound confidence, she gradually saves a small amount of money and buys a pig three months later. She also creates a safe space and a savings group of other young mothers to meet each month to save and encourage each other. And she has finally been able to report who raped and impregnated her.
This is what we do at Resonate. We help all our Muhozas rebuild their lives and celebrate these seemingly small yet significant steps they take every day.