By Steven Bockarie Mansaray in Kabala
With schools scheduled to reopen this week across the country, a day care centre has been opened in Kabala to tend to the children of teenage mothers in the town. Koinadugu district is believed to be the place hardest hit by the rising teenage pregnancy rates in Sierra Leone. The centre, which is set up and funded by a Swedish-based Sierra Leonean, Peagie Foday, will initially take in ten babies aged between nine months and three years born to mothers aged between 14 and 17 years. The teen mothers, who have been screened and put on preventive methods to forestall any future unwanted pregnancy, have been sent back to school while the centre cares for their babies. The Peagie Woobay Scholarship Fund has paid for them and will continue to pay their fees throughout secondary school, as well as four other girls who were chosen after they had topped an essay-writing competition. All fourteen girls will also receive learning materials under the same scheme. Peagie recounted her experience to the audience as she awarded the scholarships and opened the centre. She said that she was supporting girls throughout the country because of her past experience as a teenage mother. She encouraged the teenage mothers and all other teenagers to “carry books and not babies”.
The Deputy Director of Education for Koinadugu district, Abu Backarr Kuyateh, thanked the Peagie Woobay Foundation for their support to teenage mothers. He encouraged the beneficiaries to make good use of it and not to use it as a motivation for more pregnancy. The senior midwife of the Kabala Government hospital, Esther Jabbie who will be supervising the girls, encouraged them to use preventives to avoid further pregnancy so they would continue to benefit from the support as only those who perform well in school would continue to enjoy the scholarship. The beneficiaries told Politico that they will “put behind us our mistakes and focus on our education”. They lauded the CEO of the Peagie Woobay Foundation referring to her as a “role model” for them whom they would want to emulate in the future. Most of the parents who attended the ceremony expressed happiness. Speaking to Politico they lauded the initiative saying they were willing to give their support by monitoring the teenage mothers so that the scholarship would not go in vain. Officially launching the programme, the chairman of the Koinadugu district council, Samuel Sheku Kamara thanked the founder and CEO of the foundation for choosing the district for the implementation. He promised that the council would work with the Peagie Woobay team in all aspects to help minimize the problem of teenage pregnancy. He promise to work with the District Education office in monitoring the day care centre and the beneficiaries as they return to school this year. (C) Politico 10/09/13
