Although very woman is unique, getting pregnant at whatever age has its pluses and minuses, and also gives a different experience in motherhood. It is quite challenging, however, for young women who get pregnant before they even get their first period.

 "In normal circumstances, ovulation follows menses, an oocyte is released each month, if the released oocyte meets a sperm, then fertilisation can happen without necessarily having menstruated for the first time. If a girl conceives at an early age, and she is not supported physically and emotionally, she will be at risk of serious psychological disorders, including but not limited to depression that can lead to suicide,” says Dr Magnifique Irakoze, an assistant lecturer at University of Rwanda’s School of Medicine and Pharmacy. 

Dr Irakoze says that there are many factors that influence how early puberty can occur in girls, including genetic, environment, nutrition, race, among others, as some can start puberty as early as 8 which could result in pregnancy at that age.

The Government of Rwanda in partnership with numerous organisations has been at the forefront of the battle against teen pregnancy through programmes mainly focused on protecting young girls from early pregnancy and STDs.

Annet Mwizerwa, the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR) program officer at Health Development Initiative (HDI), says they have introduced a curriculum to endorse sex education in schools. 

"With the government, we initiated Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the new curriculum implemented by Rwanda Education Board (REB) since 2016 where we normally train teachers about sexual reproductive health to go and teach students, but we also have sessions with students alone where we teach them everything from puberty, hygiene, when a girl can get pregnant, menstruation to sexuality through empowered health clubs at school,” Mwizerwa says. 

She says the programme is age appropriate, culturally relevant and scientifically proven, which is a cross-cutting subject and part of the curriculum done in classrooms and CSE in primary schools, while in secondary school it is incorporated in biology and health sciences, general studies and communication skills, including history and citizenship.

HDI, a non-government organisation, carries out community meetings to create awareness about early conception, contraception, family planning in communities to reach out to all people, specifically young ones.

"We normally hold meetings with young people in certain communities, for example, youth groups to teach them how they can avert early pregnancies through debate seminars, theatre and drama, and also at national levels through Adolescent Conference Day that happens every year, which is part of what helps us create awareness about sexual reproductive health to all adolescents,” Mwizerwa says.

Raising awareness in communities, schools and national levels, they also use radio talk shows, social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and they have initiated a website named ‘Kumbe’ specifically designed for young people to convey all the information.  

"Sometimes things can become boring for young people, therefore, we use comics on ‘Kumbe’ to portray the information and it is suitable for young people because it gives them a live picture of sexual reproductive health studies and rights. We also work with different radio stations including Radio Rwanda, Isango Star, among others, but we have one specifically for young people which is Kiss FM and the show is aired every Sunday from 6 to 8pm, where we discuss different topics and invite different specialists according to the topic of the day. They discuss with the journalist and sometimes adolescents themselves are invited to discuss on behalf of others, and others call in to ask questions,” she says. 

Mwizerwa says it is still a very big issue in Rwanda for parents to talk about Sexual Reproductive Health (SRP). "We have initiated 3530 toll free lines for everyone to call and get the information and 80% of our callers daily are young people. They are very curious to know and have a lot of questions, therefore we also work with young people with a health background including nurses and counsellors to answer those questions.”

The toll free line usually receives about 700 to 1000 young people who call weekly to ask and get information about sexual reproductive health. The earliest pregnancy in Rwanda was at age of 9.