Valerie Wairimu has no time to rest during break time at Kenya's Greenland Girls School. Instead, the 19-year-old grabs a snack and heads straight to the on-site nursery, a facility that makes this educational institution unique.
There, a team of nannies awaits, having cared for her baby, Kayden, allowing Wairimu to feed him between classes.
Greenland Girls School stands as Kenya's sole educational institute dedicated to teenage mothers, providing care for many of their children. For its 310 students and over 80 infants and toddlers, the school offers a vital second chance at education, free from the stigma often associated with young motherhood.
Experts hail it as a model for how young mothers can be successfully reintegrated into the education system.
"When I found that I was pregnant, I didn’t have anywhere else to go," said Wairimu, who has consistently placed near the top of her class and harbours ambitions of becoming a doctor.
Founded in 2015, the boarding school has enabled hundreds of girls and young women to complete their secondary education while supporting their children.
Many alumni have gone on to achieve successful professional careers, including in government and medicine. The school is run by the nonprofit group Shining Hope for Communities, with many students attending through grants.
The majority of its students hail from the surrounding Kajiado County, south of Nairobi, where a network of outreach officers refers expecting mothers to the school.
The school also is connected to social services and known to teachers across Kenya, including in the far west where Wairimu is from. She was living in a family with a single father and younger brother and unable to afford to care for a newborn. Her grandmother was aware of the school and had Wairimu referred.
Many of the students are from difficult backgrounds and some became pregnant as a result of sexual assault, as well as forced marriages.
Paul Mukilya, the school’s manager, said parents often are not supportive and the school's outreach officers are left to seek agreement with community elders for students to attend.
“Some of the challenges which the students encounter are the family and the community. Most of them have failed to accept them the way they are,” Mukilya said. “When they come here, we take them through psychological counseling and mentorship.”
Sex involving minors — those under 18 — is illegal in Kenya, but the law is structured so only males are charged with a crime. Underage pregnancies often end up in court and Greenland supports its students and liaises with local authorities, especially in cases of underage marriages.
While students are in class, the school's staff take over child care and provide mentorship for the young women.
“Some of the mothers view their children as a burden,” said Caroline Mumbai, a caregiver at Greenland who has two children of her own. “So we also teach them how to mother.”
Making education accessible for teenage mothers is a challenge in Kenya and a mounting task for a country with a fast-growing young population. More than 125,000 live births in 2024 were by adolescent mothers under 19, according to Kenyan national statistics.
The Population Council, a health and development think tank, found in 2015 that two-thirds of teenage mothers cited their pregnancy as their reason for dropping out of school. As recently as 2022, research group IDinsight found unintended pregnancy was, after a lack of money for school fees, the leading cause of girls not returning to education.
Responding to demand from Kenya’s coastal regions, Greenland Girls School is opening a second campus in Kilifi County.
“Every girl who gets pregnant and drops out during their school time must be allowed reentry,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, chief executive of development agency Amref Health Africa. “Special schools are important in supplementing the general scalable policy framework. We should focus on these schools that are helping to close the equity gap.”
Greenland students say they also appreciate an environment free from stigma, which encourages learning.
“People used to judge me because I got pregnant,” said Mary Wanjiku, 20, whose son is almost 18 months old. She now hopes to become a lawyer.
“The moment I came here, I was received with love,” she said.
New funding transforms lives by expanding electricity access across Africa
First foreign troop in new gang suppression force lands in Haiti to replace previous mission
What you need to know about desalination, a growing source of drinking water
We are so close to eradicating polio – the UK cannot afford to let progress slip
Farmers left counting the costs of Iran war ahead of harvest
Hardest hit being left behind as Kenya rolls out HIV prevention jab, charity says
