SAFEGUARD VULNERABLE ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN UPCOMING EXTENDED SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
Kenyan secondary and primary schools close starting this week for a period of at least six weeks as they give room for final year students to sit for their national examinations.
As witnessed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, extended school holidays pose a very huge and significant risk to vulnerable adolescent girls in different parts of the country.
Schools have often provided safe places for adolescents through guidance from teachers, health clubs, and different empowerment programs in the schools. Days spent in school have also reduced the risk of girls being violated at home and in the community.
Long stays at home with little accountability have been known to expose adolescent girls to too many harmful practices and sexual gender-based violence including; Female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriages, teenage pregnancy, and sexual and physical abuse.
In FGM, extended holidays often give perpetrators and proponents enough time to prepare for the cut putting many girls in hotspot counties at risk. Some communities, such as the Kuria in Migori County, have already hinted at upcoming summer cutting this April.
Adolescent girls from homes living in poverty and isolation are also often at risk during this period. The parents are often overwhelmed and not able to provide for the need of these girls. These needs include clothing, food ,and menstrual hygiene management kits. As a result, most girls have fallen prey to different forms of violation of their rights in pursuit of these needs.
This has led to increased cases of child marriages, and teenage pregnancies leading to increased school dropouts. Some of the girls have also had to stay home for longer periods even as schools reopen to heal from wounds of FGM.
It is therefore very urgent and prudent that different stakeholders come together to put in place and implement interventions to protect all adolescents from any form of violation of their rights. These stakeholders include; national and county governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, parents and adolescents.
Stakeholders should leverage upcoming international celebrations like international women’s day on March 8 to advocate and put in place measures to safeguard adolescent girls during this upcoming long holiday.
We need increased awareness, implementation of set laws to protect the adolescents, and engaging the adolescents in empowerment activities to keep them actively and positively engaged.
This will ensure that all the pupils who closed school successfully reopen in good condition to continue with their education.