Article by PBI-Canada

“Niache Nisome” translates as “Let me pursue my education”.

On October 26, the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project posted: “Murals are effective in communicating messages of change.”

“These last weeks, the Women Human Rights Defenders Toolkit Organizers have been using murals to address the rise in child pregnancies during Covid-19.”

“To make the process participatory, community members were involved in message harvesting and template development across Kawangware, Mukuru, Kibera, Langata and Mathare. The painting was done with help from everyone who was willing.”

PBI-Kenya adds: “This week the Toolkit Organisers are organising community town hall meetings to discuss the murals.”

The Toolkit for Women Human Rights Defenders in Nairobi’s Urban Settlements was developed by PBI-Kenya in 2016. The Toolkit focuses on the roles, risks, and vulnerabilities of defenders who are women. Fifteen local defenders were selected as Toolkit Organizers to work with PBI to disseminate and further develop the Toolkit.

This past August these organizers held community meetings in Kibera, Mukuru, Mathare, Kawangware, and Langata settlements about the sharp increase in teenage pregnancies in Kenya during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Several recommendations came from those discussions.

PBI-Kenya has highlighted that one of the recommendations to empower girls “would be comprehensive sex education, which will support them with skills and knowledge and enable them to make informed choices regarding their sexual and reproductive health.”

“Peer pressure” and “influence of the net”