Kindly, wisely, and bravely. Honoring Mothers.
Motherhood is one of the most sacred, important roles a woman can hold. On her shoulders rests the responsibility of raising another human—kindly, wisely, and bravely. Research shows that a mother’s bond with her child is one of the strongest in the world.
But despite the joy and beauty of motherhood, it is also exceptionally difficult.
From the effects of childbirth on a woman’s body and mental health to the constant, stressful nature of child-rearing, even the most prepared, mature woman can struggle greatly with the gift of a child.
And for the girls at our home, who are young, isolated, and recovering from trauma, these challenges are dramatically compounded.
Not only are these girls experiencing the life-altering event of having a child, they are also still in a phase of significant brain development and physical changes as they grow themselves.
According to a study published by the National Library of Medicine, there are several key challenges teen mothers face:
Lack of maternal skills
Because our girls are still just children themselves, they are not equipped with the practical skills necessary to raise a child. Through the mentorship of our wonderful live-in-home staff and the support of the TKP community, we provide them with training and education on how to promote healthy childhood development.
Mental health complications
Maternity and childbirth can have catastrophic effects on a woman’s mental health, and this is especially true for the girls in our home. These girls not only became pregnant as teenagers, they became pregnant as a result of abuse—compounding the enormous burden that they need to process. Through trauma-based individual sessions, group therapy, and family counseling we walk alongside our girls in their pain and provide them with coping and healing strategies.
High-risk pregnancy and birth
Additionally, teenage mothers are at an elevated risk for childbirth complications. In Zambia, finding quality healthcare is often only possible for the most affluent. Many of our girls come from families of lower socioeconomic status or find themselves alone after becoming pregnant, making it extremely difficult to access pre and post-partum medical care. When they come to TKP, we alleviate this worry by providing them priority access to doctors for delivery and pre/postnatal appointments.
Disruption of education
As all the girls we serve are 15 years old or younger at the time of their abuse and admission to the TKP House, they are still in the process of completing their secondary education. When a girl drops out of school to care for her baby, her chances of returning to school and completing her education are low. Then, without a high school diploma, her options for meaningful employment narrow significantly. At TKP, we strive to mitigate the loss of formal education through a personalized education plan for each girl and the pursuit of literacy as one of our core programmatic components.
Financial Problems
Think back to when you were 15 years old. If you had had a baby and were kicked out of your family’s home, it would probably be extremely difficult and daunting to support yourself and your child–even in the United States. In Zambia, the situation is far worse. With no diploma and a baby to care for, teenage mothers are chronically financially unprepared to provide for themselves and their families. This dire financial situation can lead to malnutrition and starvation, or force girls to make impossible decisions because of a severe lack of financial resources. That’s where we come in. Through our vocational skills program, we teach girls and their families how to grow their own food and earn an income through farming. The Agriculture Program, combined with additional trade schools in the community, helps girls build the skills they need to provide for their families long-term.
Family Conflict
Zambian girls who become pregnant through abuse are often silenced, discarded, and shamed by their society–and even their families. Additionally, 74% of the population of Zambia lives on less than $1.25 per day, and the arrival of a baby is often too much for these families to handle, causing them to kick their pregnant daughters out of the house. At TKP, we require girls who come through our program to have 2-3 family members who will meet with us for counseling. We encourage reconciliation and healthy familial relationships to ensure lasting harmony and support for the girls who complete our program.
At The Kukhoma Project, we exist to stand in the gap in all of these problem areas–replacing fear, worry, and stress, with hope, healing, and life. It is our joy–and our holy burden–to provide a refuge of restoration to young mothers who find themselves in desperate situations.
We want our girls to be wonderful mothers to their babies, equipped and available to love and raise their children as only a mother can. We want their babies to grow up strong and healthy, nurtured by a mother who is strong and healthy herself.
This Mother’s Day, we thank all the mothers who have gone before us, paving the way for our lives through prayer, love, and tender care–and we look forward to the strong, loving mothers who will graduate from The Kukhoma Project equipped, restored, and empowered to raise another human—kindly, wisely, and bravely in an all-too-often scary and dangerous world.