THE STANDARD
What does Sh100 mean to you? May be just enough to buy groceries from mama mboga. For others, it barely registers in their daily expenditure.
For teenage girls in the slums of Nairobi, it is the amount they need to buy sanitary pads, and when they cannot raise it, they go looking for cash from men. And the result is unplanned pregnancy.
Desperate and choked by poverty, these girls become mothers at a tender age because of the struggle to ensure dignity while receiving their monthly period.
In informal settlements, teenage mothers drop out of school and look for menial jobs to cater for the babies. They wake up every day to look for casual jobs. But because they have no skills, certificates or government identification, they rarely earn more than Sh200.