Line Manager, Family Support Unit (FSU) in Makeni, Margrate Kamara, has said that everyday, cases of teenage pregnancy is reported to the Unit.
Mostly, she said, these girls are impregnated by their peers (schoolboys) or ‘okada’ riders.
The Line Manager said that cases of domestic violence, rape and abuse of young girls from the age of 8 to 13 years are reported at their unit frequently.
She said the recent case they are investigating involves a teacher who had sexual intercourse with an 8 year old school girl in a bush in Sawula Village, with the pretext of giving scholarship to the girl.
Kamara stated that most of the cases of teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, rape and abuse of young girls charged to court, the suspects have been convicted.
19 year-old Mariama Turay said that she got married at the age of 15 years and now has two children. She explained that she was asked to marry because her husband was helping her family.
Mariama stated that though she was in form three and wanted to be educated, her mother begged her to get married and threatened to disown her if she refuses.
Because of this, she said, she agreed, but now she has returned back to her mother because she is being maltreated by her husband.
Mariama said, if given the opportunity, she wants to attend any vocational institute to learn sewing, which will make her self-reliant in the future.
Another 16 year-old girl, said that she was impregnated by a school boy while she was in form two. Now, nursing a two-month-old baby, she explained that her mother forced her to date a school boy, who was going to school and at the same time doing petty trading.
She said because of the assistance the boy was giving to her mother, she had no alternative but to do what her mother asked her.
20 year-old Isatu Jalloh, said that she got married at the age of 15 to a man older than her by 10 years because her parents had no money to send her to school. Isatu said that because she always wanted to go to school, she ran from her matrimonial home and stayed with her friend.
She said she is now engaged in helping her friend’s mother to sell in the market and hope to return to Freetown to attend vocational institute.
There are many girls out there who are suffering silently from early teenage pregnancy and early marriage either by mistakes or from pressure from their family.
On October 11, the International Day of the Girl Child was celebrated in recognition of girls’ rights and the unique challenges they face around the world.
By Abibatu Kamara
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