Review of Documented Literature on Policies, Programs and Services in Kenya by Dr. Teresa Mwoma; ECD Department; Kenyatta University Dr. Teresa Mwoma, of the Department of Early Childhood in Kenyatta University partners with PAN to review the status of Adolescents with parenting responsibilities.

2.  In the family children are shaped and
prepared to face external world.
 Protection, upbringing and development of
children rests with the family.
 Parenting influence acquisition of behavior
and social skills that shape the moral, self
discipline and responsibilities of young
children.

3.  Increasing number of young adolescents are
getting into parental responsibilities prematurely.
 Consequently a focus on teenage parenting is
necessary to:
 Understand realities and
 Challenges adolescents with parenting
responsibilities face in raising children as they
continue to achieve their goals and aspirations.

4. Identify existing information on this group of
youth in relation to;
 policies/legislations,
 Programs and
 Challenges

5.  Birth rate among adolescents in Kenya above
100 births per 1,000 among adolescents
aged 15–19
 26% of all women in Kenya become mothers
or pregnant for the first time by age 18 (KNBS
& ICF Macro 2010).
 This situation has a major implication on
national development especially on the
poverty reduction realm.

6. Adolescent parenthood is closely associated with
low educational achievement,
 increased dependence on governmental support
by the adolescent mother,
 increased infant mortality and low birth weight.
 Such outcomes often lead to increased societal
expenditure and a major cause of perpetual cycle
of poverty.

7.  Current estimates indicate that between
10,000 to 13000 girls drop out of school
each year due to pregnancy alone.
 Report by the Center for Study of
Adolescents-Counting the costs of teenage
pregnancy and school dropout in Kenya.

8.  Return to school policy in 1994 and later
revised it in 2009.
 The policy allows pregnant girls to stay in
school as long as they possibly can and
resume as soon as they are strong after birth.
 In addition, it requires schools to establish
centers where the teenage mothers can
breast feed their babies as they go to school.

9.  Balancing between chores and school work
(Nelima, 2011).
 Finding someone to look after their babies to
return to school.
 Some girls expelled from school when discovered
to be pregnant (Muganda and Omondi, 2008)
 Cultural factors like fathers being decision
makers on whether to go back to school

10.  Embarrassment of teasing and taunting from
their peers.
 Young unmarried teenage mothers viewed as
both immoral and incapable students at the
neighbourhood.
 This at times discourages parents from
supporting the young mothers from returning
to school.

11.  To address concerns on health and development of
adolescents, the Adolescent Reproductive Health and
Development Policy (ARH&D) 2003 adopted to:
 Bring adolescent health issues into the mainstream of
health and development in order to improve on their
quality of life and well being.

 Its health targets include to: increase the proportion
of facilities offering basic essential obstetric care to
adolescents and youth from 15% to 30% and
comprehensive essential obstetric care from 9 % to
18 % by the year 2015.

12.  Increase the proportion of mothers below age
25 delivering in a health facility from baseline
to 60% by the year 2015.
 However, the policy does not explicitly
outline its health targets for adolescents with
parenting responsibilities

13.  Among the programs that support adolescents
with parenting responsibilities in Kenya,
 Young Mothers Kenya and
 Hope for the Teenage Mothers.
 Young Mothers Kenya target vulnerable
adolescent girls to equip them with necessary
skills for a socioeconomically sustainable life.

14.  To achieve this objective, the program focuses on
capacity building of young mothers in communication
skills, child care and child rights.
 The program also focuses on reproductive health,
HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.
 It equips young mothers with skills on home nursing,
micro credit and entrepreneurship among others.
 In addition, the program is running a tailoring
training to empower the teen mothers economically.

15.  Hope for Teenage Mothers project targets young
girls who drop out of school due to teenage
pregnancies.
 The project also targets children born by the
teenage young mothers in Embakasi and
Dagoreti districts.
 The main aim of the program is to enable
teenage mothers develop economic
independence through entrepreneurship and
microfinance training.

16.  Information on the successes, challenges was
scanty for the two programs
 Apart from the return to school policy, the
policies on psychosocial support, childcare
skills
 Teenage boys with parenting responsibilities
especially if parents have died
 Teenage fathers not much information

17.  Thank You