Przemoc wobec biegaczek w Kenii

Esther, 16, stands apart from the other children during porridge time at Project Elimu in Nairobi’s largest informal settlement of Kibera, on May 7, 2022. Project Elimu is a community-driven non-profit organization offering after-school arts education and a safe space to children living in Kibera. After schools closed during the pandemic Esther became pregnant, her boyfriend abandoned her, and she gave birth alone in the hospital. She dreams of finishing her education and becoming a newscaster, but she has a hard time imaging how she’ll manage that as a new mother. *Note: Esther is an anonymity pseudonym to protect the subject. Esther is wearing a black top and grey sweatpants. In Nairobi, girls in crowded neighborhoods like Kibera face a different set of challenges and incentives: local development workers and activists say they're seeing an uptick in unintended pregnancies, sexual abuse, violence against girls in their own homes, school drop-outs, and survival sex work. Before COVID-19 struck, Kenya was improving by so many development measures, especially when it comes to girls. Then the pandemic created a perfect storm for a regression on girls' progress, which has downstream effects on a nation's health and economic viability. When families find their resources constrained -- and lots of Kenyan families have lost work and income because of Covid -- they're less likely to pay for their daughters' school fees, more likely to invest in sons, and more likely to need their daughters to help out with earning or childcare. Girls who aren't in school are more likely to marry as children or teenagers; they are more likely to get pregnant and give birth early; they are more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after; and they are more likely to live in poverty.