Despite the government’s assurance of providing free primary and secondary education, a number of poor families living in the coastal towns are not able to access and provide proper education support to their children.
The most hit families are the ones raised under single parenthood especially the single mothers living in the Maweni Slums.
Additionally, these families are living in abject where they cannot afford even two meals a day.
Mercy Damah is a form four registered candidate from Mombasa Better Life High School in Mombasa County living with her two siblings and her mother who raises them as a single mother.
She reveals that her two siblings have not been able to report to school for the second team due to the school fees challenges.
Mercy who is 21 years old, told Kenya Television Media News how difficult life is in her neighbourhood where food and shelter would not be a guarantee not forgetting to mention reliable water and sanitation services.
The firstborn in a family of three narrates how it has been an uphill task for her single mother to raise them all alone with no reliable source of income, except for manual jobs.
She regrets that if the condition continues, she risks missing out on the national examinations later by the end of this year
“I am a form four candidate and registered for my Kenya Certificate for Secondary Education (KCSE) exams this year. However, I have never been in class since the term began due to lack of school fees,” she said.
“With the classes ongoing my fellow candidates are learning as they prepare for exams but on my side, I can’t tell my fate if I will sit for the exam or not,” sounds Mercy dejectedly.
Inhabitable Maweni slums
Life in the slums has drawn an ogre picture in Damah’s mind and what remains to be the best ultimate solution that would put an end to her family’s suffering in the slums is education.
Moreover, life in Maweni Slums is very ugly that’s why many young people end up dropping out of school because nobody cares.
Instances of young girls selling their dignity in exchange for food, pads, and even little money as little as Sh50 has been on the rise.
Young people often get tempted and hence the mushroom of rampant teenage pregnancies in the area.
“It has been my dream to be a doctor, however, my biggest challenge is that I can’t raise the required school fees and this is the main reason why many young stars get involved in sex life to help them sustain daily life, especially the sanitary pads
Meanwhile, as poverty remains a nightmare to Damah and girls of her age in Maweni, a thin-lining hope has since been drawn by a local community-based organisation known as the Maweni Single Mothers Group.
Maweni Single Mothers Group
Maweni Single Mothers Group is a local lobby group of Single Mothers in Kisauni in Mombasa County, with campaigns that aim at improving the living standards of hundreds of vulnerable and needy families in the slum village of Maweni.
Maweni Single Mothers Group since its establishment 3 years ago, has been at the forefront in empowering vulnerable groups across the Maweni area.
This included providing basic necessities such as food and education support to young, vulnerable women and People living with disabilities.
The group launched in 2020 has seen members especially poor young girls and their needy single mothers going through mentorship on how they could develop in terms of guidance assistance.
Their campaign hugely targets to empower particularly single mothers as well as champion for rights of both girls and boys from needy families living in the area.
Kadogo Dena Kadilo, the chairperson and co-founder of the CBO together with three other single mothers said they started by giving out small donations in the form of food and clothes to the more vulnerable families in the neighbourhood.
Before coming up with the CBO, Dena has been working as a village elder at Bamburi Vikwatani for a period of nine years.
During her time as a leader, she received numerous cases from mothers who were seeking help, this was in addition to the huge number of school-going children who could not attend school due to fee challenges.
“I have been working as a village elder for 9 years in this area. Due to many reports I received during this time, I decided to form a group together with my partners with one voice as mothers,” narrates Dena.
“After registering we started our activities by contributing foods and sanitary pads,” she added.
The Single Mothers Group is currently supporting a total of 70 children from the slums, 36 boys and 44 girls among them children living with disabilities and orphans.
Dena says several poor boys and girls in the area have been forced to work as scrap metal collectors, with the aim of helping their struggling families put food on the table.
Surging teenage pregnancies
During an exclusive interview with Kenya Television Media News, the middle-aged woman mentions early pregnancy as the main challenge majority of the girls encounter.
This she says was due to a lack of easy access to sanitary pads and food, pushing them to engage in immoral behaviours that end up destroying their future.
“It’s hurting to see how many children here are not able to attend school, instead wandering around collecting scrap metal and other garbage to sell for survival,” said Dena remorsefully.
“Additionally education has become too expensive for the parents to afford, like it cost 3000 for a grade one pupil to be registered and other basic needs like uniforms, and books. There is no free education in this area,” she added.
However, the lobby group’s Chairlady has called on the County Government of Mombasa to partner with Mombasa Cement and work together with other institutions in helping alleviate the lives of thousands of needy and vulnerable families.
“We are asking the county government of Mombasa, our governor Abdulswamad to partner with Mombasa cement to help the community and children to able access better education,” pleaded Dena.
Mombasa Cement have been popular through its free food donation program where they provide food donations and financial support to poor and needy families in terms of medical and school fees.
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