Last updated: August 13, 2020
Ashley spent her teenage years living hand-to-mouth in Kenya's coastal region. Searching for a better life, her father moved the family to an informal settlement in Mombasa County. “Frequently we had no meals or basic necessities,” explained Ashley. “We lived a miserable life.” Due to lack of education, he took menial jobs. With most of his income spent on family needs, education for Ashley and her siblings was not possible.
While health pandemics test healthcare systems, the economy, and our resilience, youth in Kenyan counties are rising to the challenge. Youth complement the incredible work of healthcare practitioners in preventing, creating awareness about, and managing the virus. In Bungoma, Garissa, Kericho, Kisii, Kwale, Migori, Nairobi, Nyeri and West Pokot counties, USAID supported youth through the Kenya Youth Employment and Skills (K-YES) program to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in their communities.
Diseases like Tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19 are respiratory infections transmitted by air, and are prevalent across many African countries, including Kenya. It is especially important that people with TB keep their immune system strong by taking their treatment as prescribed and protecting themselves from COVID-19 by washing hands, wearing masks, and practicing social distancing.
Like in many other parts of the world, wearing a face mask while in public has become mandatory in Kenya to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Masks can be easy to find but prohibitively expensive for poor populations in rural areas and informal settlements. In Kilifi, one of the Kenya's coastal counties, patients including pregnant women could not access health care for lack of masks, preventing their access to life-saving maternal care.
Motherhood is an important occurrence in a woman’s life. However, the growing number of teenage mothers is a concern in Kenya. Early motherhood affects not only the adolescent girls who are not ready to become mothers, but also their family, school, and society. Ashura, like many adolescent girls in Kenya, dropped out of school at the age of 18 to take care of her infant. She lived and went to school in Pumwani, home to some of Nairobi’s poorest people - many of whom depend on the informal sector for an income. Ashura believed it was the end of her education and, judging from her peers’ experience, she was convinced that there would be no bright future for her. Stigma plays a key role in keeping girls out of school as they are too ashamed to resume learning.
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