Written by Sharon Joan, CFK Africa Girls Empowerment Project Assistant
For some girls in Kajiado, other people start deciding their futures long before they can decide for themselves.
Family expectations, money, and tradition can decide whether a girl stays in school, marries early, or returns to class after a pregnancy. In some Maasai communities in Kajiado, female genital mutilation and early marriage still shape girls’ lives. Some families see daughters as economic assets, hand them domestic work early, or treat marriage as the obvious next step after a pregnancy.
Pregnancy tightens every one of those pressures. Overnight, everything in a girl’s life can change. One of the biggest questions that arises from stigma is whether or not she still belongs in school.
Two young mothers in CFK Africa’s Funzo Project know that all too well. Their stories are different, but both raise the same question: what changes when a girl decides what comes next?
A future already spoken for
The adults around Grace* had already made their plan. She would marry an older man.
Her pregnancy had rewritten what people expected of her. Instead of school, she faced life as a wife while still a girl. Then, people in her own community stepped in. Community health promoters (CHPs), her school, and local structures that knew about CFK Africa’s Girls Empowerment Program saw what was happening and connected her to help. Together, they moved her out of immediate danger and got her back into school through the Funzo project.
She did not enter a marriage. Today, she boards at school under the principal’s care, alongside other teenage mothers working to finish their education. Grace knows how close she came to an early marriage.
“If I had not been given this opportunity, today I would probably be an old man’s wife,” she says. “Instead, I am in school working hard to build my future and create a better life for myself and my child.”
Her story shows why telling teenage mothers to go back to school is not enough. A girl can want education and still face pressure to marry. She may have no fees and no one to watch her baby. Her family may tell her that motherhood has already decided her future.
For Grace, several people had to choose another path for her. CHPs spotted the risk. Community structures backed up the referral, and her school made room for her. Between them, they gave back what she nearly lost: a future she gets to choose.
Finding her voice
Jennifer* joined Funzo after CHPs reached her during enrollment.
At first, she barely spoke. She came to weekly mentorship and safe space sessions and stayed quiet while others talked. Her mentors kept making room for her. The sessions covered her real life: teenage motherhood, sexual and reproductive health, confidence, leadership, and public speaking.
Slowly, she joined in. She added to discussions. She volunteered to present. The girl who once sat silent started speaking in front of the room.
Her school noticed. Later that year, the school chose her to attend the 9th Pan-African Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Scientific Conference in Mombasa. Reproductive Health Network Kenya organized it with the Ministry of Health, and delegates came from across Africa.
Over three days, they discussed teenage pregnancy, motherhood, and young people’s reproductive health and rights. Jennifer stood up and added her own experience. She talked about becoming a young mother, going back to school, and studying while raising her son. She spoke about what keeps her there: Funzo pays her school fees, puts her son in daycare, and gives her a mentor every week.
“Motherhood should not mark the end of a girl’s aspirations,” she told the room. “Instead, let it be the motivation to pursue a better future for yourself and your child.”
The words carried weight because she had lived them. She knew the judgment that follows a pregnancy. She knew what it would take to walk back into a classroom as a mother. And she knew how much support a pregnant teen needs to gain a second chance.
WHEN THE PRESSURES PILE UP
Grace and Jennifer lived different stories, but both show how fast the pressures on a girl can stack. Pregnancy can push her out of school. Out of school, she depends more on others for money. Money trouble can make early marriage look like the only way out. Harmful practices and narrow ideas about a girl’s future close the remaining doors.
The pressure comes from many directions, so the response has to, as well.
A young mother cannot concentrate in class if she spends the day wondering who is minding her child. A girl facing an early marriage may not be able to refuse it alone. A girl who has lived through shame or rejection may need more than school fees before she feels ready to speak up again.
That is why Funzo works with the girls and with everyone around them. CFK Africa partners with CHPs, mentors, schools and community structures to find girls who need support, bring teenage mothers back to education, provide mentorship and psychosocial support, and clear the practical obstacles that make staying in school so hard.
The communities where girls can live their lives to the fullest are also full of people changing them: teachers who open the school gate, CHPs who spot a girl at risk, mentors who build safe spaces, parents who choose education, and local leaders who speak out against harmful practices.
Change does not arrive from outside. The community drives it from within.
*Names have been changed to protect the girls’ identities.
***In honor of our 25th anniversary in 2026, this story is #18 of 25 Stories of Change, shared throughout the year and featuring youth and communities whose lives have been transformed by CFK Africa.