"Being home means I’m now the househelp. I’ve to cook, clean and look after my siblings. When I’m sent to the shops, men offer me money to have sexual relations with them,” says a 16-year-old girl from Nairobi. “My father lost his job and I can see he is struggling to make ends meet. I’ve been tempted to give in so that I can buy food for my family and sanitary pads for myself.”
Unesco says 90 per cent of countries have closed learning institutions to avoid the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. So, 1.54 billion children and youth enrolled in school globally, including four million adolescent girls in Kenya, are at home.
Adolescence (age 10-19) is pivotal for the development of a girl in particular. It’s then that the foundation for a healthy and productive adulthood is laid. But it also has considerable risks and vulnerabilities — including sexual exploitation and abuse, female genital cutting, teenage pregnancy, early marriage and risk of HIV infection.
In Kenya, 32 per cent of young women suffer sexual violence before they turn 18. The country’s teenage pregnancy rate is the third-highest with one in five girls aged 15-19 pregnant or having given birth and 23 per cent married by age 18. All this against the harsh reality of a 21 per cent prevalence of FGM.
The prevalence of HIV among girls aged 15–19 is four times that in boys of the same age. That is attributed to the numerous and often layered vulnerabilities that they encounter — such as violence, trans-generational sexual relations and limited access to sexual and reproductive health information and services.
Some 49 per cent of adolescent mothers received the recommended antenatal care, compared to 60 per cent of those aged 20-34.
Kenyan girls achieve close to 100 per cent secondary school enrolment and a completion rate that is higher than boys’. But adolescent girls have limited time for education due to the gendered nature of household chores and care-giving duties, resulting in weaker performance in school than boys’ and, in many cases, dropping out.
School has long been a safe haven for vulnerable girls. Studies link the increasing educational feats among girls to better outcomes such as delayed childbearing, safer births and lower rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. But now, adolescent girls do not have the social safety net of school and efforts to sustain safe space interventions and access to HIV prevention and treatment are hampered.
Sexual exploitation, including transactional sex, has increased as an unintended consequence of anti-Covid-19 measures such as school closures, localised lockdown and isolation. Social protection mechanisms offered by the school-based infrastructure and routine have been replaced by increased vulnerability to physical and sexual assault. Many families have turned to marrying off their adolescent daughters in a bid to stave off hunger and homelessness.
Anecdotal reports say girls in informal settlements have been violated when going to the toilet, often outside the home, with most incidents during the curfew.
With a school system, such cases are reportedly fewer and teachers and other responsible parties form the reporting mechanism to seek timely response and services. But with schools closed, this network of response has collapsed and the burden pushed to an overwhelmed police service.
And beyond the security concern is a health concern that, for adolescent girls, is largely held up through the school network and associated services.
From reproductive health services, provision of sanitary towels and medication to a balanced diet and, for some, the promise of a meal, the closure of schools has placed adolescent girls in peril.
Health resources are being channelled to the pandemic and, in many areas, are likely to cause a drastic influence in other health outcomes, including safe pregnancies and childbirth. Provision of essential commodities are affected and, with most of the girls relying on free sanitary pads distributed at their schools, they no longer have access to them.
Critical attention is required in approaches targeting adolescent girls. The necessary quarantine measures, coupled with reduction of social interaction between peers and interruption of other school-based services, have put girls at heightened risk of exploitation and violence, reversing decades of gains in securing protections for the youth and adolescent girls.
Ensuring these girls’ needs are not overlooked and that they return to school when they reopen is as important as creating awareness on hygiene and prevention of Covid-19.
Ms Mwabe is gender adviser, Ministry of Devolution.
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