As a youngster in Kenya, Mary Wambua was different. Children stayed away from her. “When my friends were going to school and playing together—I was on my own. They said I smelled and didn’t want to get close to me,” says Mary Wambua, 48. Mary had a fistula—an abnormal passage between the bladder and vagina
In early 2020, the Government of Uganda declared a lockdown with strict measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic; schools closed for 22 months. “Closed schools meant two things—no learning and teenage pregnancies,” says Teddy Kevin Nabuzale, a psychosocial support counselor with Mbale Youth Group. In some districts in Uganda, teenage pregnancies increased by 30%–50%
Always smiling and cheerful, Carla Santos Cossa*, a mentor mother since 2019, pays attention to women waiting for appointments as she walks through the corridors of the Integrated Care and Treatment Center (CICTRA) at the Military Hospital of Maputo. She begins her day at the health center like many other mentor mothers across Mozambique. “In
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