Anisha Atieno is trying to come up with a solution to the rising number of teen mothers and the stigma that they suffer in society.
Her experience working with organisations dealing with street children and young mothers, coupled with her career in counselling psychology, pushed her to want to help more.
‘The trauma of being a mother at a tender age weighs on these teen moms. The fact that society emotionally bullies them around and discriminates against them for being ‘loose, too early in life’, starts us off, Atieno.
A teenage mom at Kulea Lulu centre in Nakuru works on a drawing. The centre has helped young women gain skills and explore their talents as a way to escape societal stigma for teenage mums. Photo by Merceline Khaemba
Ushering us into her office, a shop that has a number of artworks on display. Gift bags made from Ankara water hyacinth products like photo frames mounted with portraits and decorations made from beverage cans.
We are lost for a while as we drown in the world of art. The work of hands that Atieno and a group of teen moms, as well as her colleagues, have made.
‘I started Nish Creation in 2020 mainly to help the disadvantaged in society and to solve the problem of unemployment in society, but later on, this gave birth to Kulea Lulu, as I tried to train the teen moms so that they could also gain a skill to earn a living, from,’ continues the CEO of Nish Creation.
Together with a friend, only referred to as Margaret, the team opted to take young girls off the streets of Nakuru City. Teenagers, who had given birth at a young age and were from disadvantaged backgrounds, were also incorporated into the programme to benefit from psychological counselling because she ‘did not have enough money to offer them for upkeep.’
‘We later had to devise ways of keeping them on their toes and having them open up to us. We started teaching them hands-on work, such as making Ankara products and decorations from plastic and glass bottle waste.
‘This not only served as a way of solving their trauma but also as a way of earning them a living, as we put on sale all the clothes they made while in our facility.’
Atieno takes a stroll at the shop, just to check that everything is on perfect display. She stops to admire an Ankara bag made by one of the teen moms and remembers her story.
‘These girls are always impregnated by their agemates, whether by force or by mutual agreement. In such a situation, punishing either one of them or both will not solve this, and for that reason, we have to find a possible solution by counselling both parties,’ Atieno says, suggesting a solution to this problem of baby daddy responsibility.
Suzan Adhiambo, 20, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of Nish’s creation. She lashes out at society for the wrong mentality of viewing young mothers as ill-mannered.
‘Being a teen mom is just a mistake like any other mistake, and they should just be given a second chance in life to help them make it to attain their goals,’ said the mother of two daughters.
Adhiambo, while justifying how it took her a lot of time to overcome the trauma that made her nearly resort to suicide, is thankful to Atieno, who came to her rescue.
Zeck Jamoga, a graduate of Egerton University, views Art as the number one therapy for anyone managing a psychological problem.
‘It is not easy for someone to pour out her problems to you, but through art, I have been able to know what the ladies undergo and find a possible solution to them. I always ask them to draw, and in artistic work, a picture is an interpretation of something, so they put their problems on paper, even unknowingly.’
Jamoga also addresses the issue of unemployment, saying that despite the fact that he graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Science and Horticulture, he has made a life out of his artistic work by training anyone interested in this field.
Lucy Wangare, an orphan who was taken by Anisha from a children’s home after they could no longer manage to finance her, says that indeed she sees Nish Creation and Kulea Lulu growing to higher levels just the same way she has rapidly grown from them, solved her depression problems, and sharpened her art skills.
Nakuru City has been ranked among the most densely populated counties with teen mothers in Kenya, with a total number of over 15,000 teen moms aged 10-19 from the statistics recorded in 2022 from the county health department.
A report from Nairobi-based charity Kenya Children of Hope shows that around two hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand children in Kenya are street kids, with around half of them aged between eleven and fifteen, and 63 per cent of those homeless children have been on the street on a part-time or full-time basis for up to five years.
Source: Kenya News Agency