TEMAK Teenage Mothers and Girls Association of Kenya A program working against teen pregnancy and for economic empowerment and rehabilitation of adolescent girls and AIDS orphans. WHY IS TEMAK CONCERNED? No one really knows the number of teenage mothers in Kenya today but school drop out estimates suggest between 8,000 and 10,000 girls leave school every year due to pregnancy and that only 16.6% of the teenage mothers are employed with no knowledge on child care. The pregnancy repercussions are dropping out of school, psychological stress, rural - urban migration, unemployment, food problems, health problems due to physical immaturity, vulnerability to poverty, prostitution and the consequences of contracting STD's and AIDS, alienation by families and social stigmatization. Although teenage motherhood is a long-standing problem, it has taken a dramatic and disturbing turn for the worse in the last 10 years, leading into increases in child labour, prostitution Sc HIV infection.
An overwhelming number of orphans exist in this region as a result of HIV-AIDS related cases. According to the official Government records, 700 people die daily (210,000/month) of AIDS related diseases, leaving behind the orphans either with old grandparents to care for them or the orphans must care for themselves. Many orphans, especially girls, are finally forced to go into child labor where they are employed as maids and hardly paid their dues.
Many of these girls will end up in prostitution. Without actual community involvement in solving this problem, the situation of orphans will become worse and their future doomed. In Kenya, there is no free education and medical treatment must be paid for: hence these vital components of human life become facilities only for the rich and no orphan can ever dream of accessing them.
THE CREATION OF TEMAK This emerged from fellowships between the TEMAK members, Teenage Mothers & girls in two sublocations of Kisumu District and subsequent production of a program document. TEMAK today has an established staff line up with effective interventions to tackle teenage pregnancy issues and teenage mother predicaments. TEMAK's activities will be mainly at the Community level while at the same time pushing for National action programs.
STRATEGY AND GOALS At the heart of TEMAK ministries are its action programmes that are a demonstration of hope that the girl child and AIDS orphaned children predicament can be effectively tackled and that those affected can be rehabilitated back into society. TEMAK promotes a nationwide campaign for girls in need of special protection, mobilizes public opinion to press for action and accommodates victims within the society through rehabilitation. TEMAK therefore works closely with other UN Agencies, NGO's, church ministries and government departments to avoid duplication of efforts and to maximize the impact of all available resources against the problem.
PLAN OF ACTION Our immediate plan of action includes:
Our present target group includes:
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Teenage
mothers
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Out of school girls
•
Child prostitutes
•
HIV positive mothers and girls
•
Young AIDS widows & Housemaids
•
AIDS orphaned girls
Our Current Activities
Health Provide treatment for teen mothers, girls and their children twice a week. Education A non-formal school for children of teenage mothers & orphaned children.
Economic Empowerment Provide loans to individual girls or groups to start small- scale business. Support Food, clothing & medicine distributed to girls living with AIDS. Rent paid to support them economically. Halfway home Provide facilities for at
least 3 girls at a time who are in Counseling Offer counseling to youths generally, especially girls and single mothers. Skill improvement We provide a one-year course for teenage mothers and girls on:
Crafts &
Entrepreneurship
Promote and train young women in crafts e.g. weaving, making earrings, necklaces, etc using locally available materials such as hyacinth, papyrus and sisal. Spinning and weaving using the handloom machine is promoted while formation of small cottage industries is encouraged. Our craft shops offer various articles for sale from several young people. Lobbying and Advocacy Fighting for the rights of the adolescent mothers and the girl child in general through lobbying and advocacy Contact TEMAK
P.O. Box 3531, Kisumu, Kenya 40100 TEL: +254 (0)722-271066 EMAIL: temak@mailkisumu.com
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