Editor,

I strongly believe that it’s never worth getting pregnant while still a teen school girl (see article, "Is it worth getting pregnant in school?” published in Education Times pullout on May 8).

When I was in high school, a classmate and best friend of mine got pregnant, and all of a sudden, she lost all her interest in school. She started coming very late, and once inside the classroom, she spent almost the entire day sleeping on the table.

The situation grew so pathetic she started jumping on her own shadow whenever someone passed by (for fear that someone was going to ask her about the pregnancy even though only a handful of close friends knew about it). Even her mother and sisters didn't know that she was pregnant, and so were most of the students.

I don't know whether she knew the person who was responsible for her pregnancy, but it looked like she was going through a very terrible situation. She had stopped eating and feared to go for antenatal checkup.

She would wear oversized clothes so that no one noticed she's pregnant. I was afraid that this could do some harm to the fetus, the girl didn't care about that. She only wanted to conceal her situation.

Later, one teacher found out her secret and decided to talk to her in private. She used to tell me all this stuff because I was her soul mate and confidant. When the teacher advised her to cease to live a life of hopelessness and take care of both herself and the unborn child, she burst into tears and told her that she hated life.

She told her the situation was becoming unbearable for her. A few days later, she stopped coming at school regularly, and she wasn't at her home either. At first, I thought that she might probably know the father of the baby and that she went to his place.

But when she came returned to school, she told me that she went to live with some friends of hers but that they told her that she can't give birth while they stayed together. They obliged her to break the silence and tell everything to her mom.

I don't know whether she eventually managed to tell her mother; what I know is that she wasn't present when we sat our senior six examinations. She had dropped out altogether. She had become a single mother.

There are many young women out there with similar experiences. Unexpected pregnancy at such a tender age is the last thing you want for our youth. Let’s all speak out against it.

Sandrine Cyusa, Rwanda