Several weeks ago, the village nurse, the school matron, a short-term volunteer, named Rachel conducted pregnancy testing after the Education Office, of the district we are located in, told us to. This is about how that went.
In Tanzania, the current President thought it would be a bright idea if a school girl gets pregnant, then she's not allowed to come to school. Because of backlash this policy mandated by the President has yet to become actual Tanzanian law. In a Maasai community pregnancies as early as 10 years old is something that community members barely bat an eye at. Young women and girls are put into arranged marriages in which they are first bought for crates of soda, and then finally and fully "bought" if you will, in exchange for cattle. Let that sink in. Soda and cattle.
*For posting and privacy purposes, the victim's name has been changed in this post.
I had been made to conduct pregnancy testing before at the school, but this time it was much different. There were several girls that had to be re-tested, and the one that came back positive was a Grade 7 student, named Sarah. The head teacher and I held all of the Grade 7 students back for a faux meeting about tutoring, and then we managed to have Sarah stay back as to be discreet for her, on the day that we had already conducted pregnancy testing. She took the news with a lot of bravery, and after a lot of counseling, sitting together over several hours, she revealed how this situation came to be. Mind you, she is a school girl, so for her to be pregnant is automatically considered rape in Tanzania. In her relating of the atrocious night she had gone through about a month earlier, she showed a level of maturity and grace so beyond her years.
As protocol, the head teacher and I brought Sarah to the district hospital for confirmation that she was indeed pregnant, and to the police to file a report so that she make seek some justice. The police are able to use corporal punishment type force on someone to get them to speak about something, which was used on Sarah without our knowledge it was going to happen that way at the time. After having learned that you're pregnant, can't return to school, can't see your friends everyday, losing her routine and having to change her plans for the future, Sarah was subjected to reliving her experience.
I think it is also important to note that most medical care in Tanzania, and many parts of East Africa, is pay-your-way. You see the nurse, then you go to the counter to pay, then back to the doctor for consultation, then back to the desk, then back for your diagnosis and then back to get an x-ray and so on.
Rachel and I have visited Sarah several times to try and make sure she has a sense of normalcy. Having gone to school everyday with her friends, studying, playing and coming home, having to stay home would be very difficult.
Everything she is going through is more than I could ever imagine, but her grace. Her personality is so spunky and fun.
Update: About two weeks later, Sarah told us that she "wasn't pregnant anymore". Which was alarming and confusing, because my mind immediately went to the idea that she had a "village abortion", which is a term used to describe an at-home, dangerous, do-it-yourself termination of pregnancy. She said it wasn't an abortion, but we were actually still unsure. She later went to the doctor and the doctor confirmed the miscarriage.
What's next for Sarah?
The precedent of child pregnancies in this community is discouraging because the perpetrators of raping these young girls have not been held accountable. Every student that has become pregnant at the school I direct is reported to case workers and local authorities, but there hasn't been an outcome. I am working on letters and seeing the possibilities of Sarah coming back to the same school (the President also wants girls that are no longer pregnant to go back to different schools so as to "not be humiliated"). We can campaign and work to get her back on track because, as she is a child, it is her right to be back in school. There's not one way of moving forward, but looking at the big picture, rapists need to be held accountable and we need to raise children in a way where they know about respect and consent.
