A rare school in Kenya is empowering teenage mothers with education and child care

KAJIADO, Kenya (AP) - Valarie Wairimu has no time to rest during break time at Kenya's Greenland Girls School. The teenager grabs a snack and goes straight to what makes this school unique: its nursery.

The 19-year-old is met by a team of nannies who have been watching her baby, Kayden, before she feeds him between classes.

The school is the only educational institute in Kenya dedicated to teenage mothers and cares for many of their children. For its 310 students and more than 80 children from infants to toddlers, Greenland represents a second chance at school that is free from stigma and, experts say, a model for how young mothers can be reintegrated into education.

"When I found that I was pregnant, I didn't have anywhere else to go," said Wairimu, who has placed near the top of her class in exams at Greenland and hopes to become a doctor.

The boarding school was founded in 2015 and has put hundreds of girls and young women through secondary education while supporting their children. Some have gone on to successful professional careers, including in government and medicine.

The school is run by the nonprofit group Shining Hope for Communities and many students attend through grants.

The majority of students come from surrounding Kajiado County, south of Nairobi, where the school has a network of outreach officers who can refer expecting mothers.

The school also is connected to social services and known to teachers across Kenya, including in the far west where Wairimu is from. She was living in a family with a single father and younger brother and unable to afford to care for a newborn. Her grandmother was aware of the school and had Wairimu referred.

Many of the students are from difficult backgrounds and some became pregnant as a result of sexual assault, as well as forced marriages.

Paul Mukilya, the school's manager, said parents often are not supportive and the school's outreach officers are left to seek agreement with community elders for students to attend.

"Some of the challenges which the students encounter are the family and the community. Most of them have failed to accept them the way they are," Mukilya said. "When they come here, we take them through psychological counseling and mentorship."

Sex involving minors - those under 18 - is illegal in Kenya, but the law is structured so only males are charged with a crime. Underage pregnancies often end up in court and Greenland supports its students and liaises with local authorities, especially in cases of underage marriages.

While students are in class, the school's staff take over child care and provide mentorship for the young women.

"Some of the mothers view their children as a burden," said Caroline Mumbai, a caregiver at Greenland who has two children of her own. "So we also teach them how to mother."

Making education accessible for teenage mothers is a challenge in Kenya and a mounting task for a country with a fast-growing young population. More than 125,000 live births in 2024 were by adolescent mothers under 19, according to Kenyan national statistics.

The Population Council, a health and development think tank, found in 2015 that two-thirds of teenage mothers cited their pregnancy as their reason for dropping out of school. As recently as 2022, research group IDinsight found unintended pregnancy was, after a lack of money for school fees, the leading cause of girls not returning to education.

Responding to demand from Kenya's coastal regions, Greenland Girls School is opening a second campus in Kilifi County.

"Every girl who gets pregnant and drops out during their school time must be allowed reentry," said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, chief executive of development agency Amref Health Africa. "Special schools are important in supplementing the general scalable policy framework. We should focus on these schools that are helping to close the equity gap."

Greenland students say they also appreciate an environment free from stigma, which encourages learning.

"People used to judge me because I got pregnant," said Mary Wanjiku, 20, whose son is almost 18 months old. She now hopes to become a lawyer.

"The moment I came here, I was received with love," she said.