{"id":1640,"date":"2023-10-12T16:04:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T13:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starter.rocltd.co.ke\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2023-12-19T19:20:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T16:20:57","slug":"pregnancy-is-not-the-end-of-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/?p=1640","title":{"rendered":"Pregnancy is not the end of the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a child growing up in Kiambu, life held promise for Njeri, not her real me, was doing well at school and on completing her primary level, gained a pass for secondary school. But her education ended when she discovered her parents could not afford the fees. She was devastated. \u201cI wanted to continue with school but couldn\u2019t, so I stayed at home for a whole year,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt bad about this but I had no choice.\u201d In return for her keep, she helped with the housework, but she felt her stepmother was abusive towards her and this prompted her to make alternative plans. \u201cI could not even get food. After a year, I met a man and we ended in a relationship,\u201d Njeri says. \u201cI didn\u2019t like staying at home and not going to school, so the relationship was the next best thing. This man was my \u2018rescue\u2019.\u201d Although the relationship wasn\u2019t considered as no girl was expected to be in a relationship at such an early age, especially with an older man. She dropped out of school and received a negative response whenever she raised her plights of access to family planning services and related sexual reproductive health information. \u201cSo we never used any form of protection,\u201d she says. \u201cOne month after the relationship, I was pregnant. When I told him, he said it couldn\u2019t be his and he left me without saying goodbye.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His reaction devastated her, but worse was to come. Having a child to support without an income proved difficult for Njeri. \u201cI\u2019m seeing my life going down because my child is another burden,\u201d she says. With this determination in mind, she joined the \u2018Small sisters in Kiambu, which offers sexual reproductive health information, guidance, and psychosocial support. She now envisions a brighter future for herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing I\u2019ve got since I joined is confidence. I used to look at the floor when people talked to me. Through the exercises, I have been able to mix with anyone and network.\u201d Armed with this confidence and her newly gained knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, Njeri now reaches out to other youngsters who find themselves in her position. \u201cI have been helping to educate other girls. I teach them about family planning, how to use condoms, and about other methods of contraception,\u201d she says. She also encourages them to visit the health centers to access services. With the support of the big sisters, Njeri can see a new beginning for herself. \u201cI\u2019m happy to be in this project. My dream is to have skills in something and be able to depend on myself. Now, I feel like my dreams will be met,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child growing up in Kiambu, life held promise for Njeri, not her real me, was doing well at school and on completing her primary level, gained a pass for secondary school. But her education ended when she discovered her parents could not afford the fees. She was devastated. \u201cI wanted to continue with …<\/p>\n

Pregnancy is not the end of the road<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csakenya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}