Marie Clarisse Mfurayabo’s passion for women empowerment pushed her to start an organisation to support vulnerable teen mothers in her home district, Rwamagana. She says she got the idea after learning that most teen mothers are victims of rape and defilement, and many of the men responsible flee, leaving the girls to care for themselves. In 2019, 34-year-old Mfurayabo started Mfura Foundation, an organisation solely sponsored by herself and her family, which has reached over 100 teen mothers across Kigabiro Sector, and 40 are currently taking tailoring classes, among other ways to support themselves. “In my life, I love helping, helping a woman in particular, because when a woman prospers, the family prospers, and the whole nation progresses,” Mfurayabo says. “I got the idea to support teen mothers due to the life they live; a girl gives birth to her first child, then the second, is regularly involved in sexual activities, and even when she gets married, you find her lacking real values,” she explains. Mfurayabo believes that families do not prioritise educating their children and teaching them values, mentioning this as one of the main reasons for the increasing teen pregnancy rate. Most of her beneficiaries were raped and the men fled, there are also those who gave up lawsuits due to lack of evidence. This is what happened to Shadia Icyimpaye from Biraro, Kigabiro Sector. She was raped on her way back from school, she was afraid to say it, so she kept quiet until her parents suspected that she was pregnant—she did not even know she was pregnant. She was 16 at the time, the baby is now two-and-a-half years old. The child’s father, who was 10 years older, denied any involvement. Icyimpaye, who is the lastborn in a family of eight children, says this was the first time a teen girl in her family got pregnant, and it was a hurting experience. “The way they treat you is not the same,” she says. “It is very hard to accept it, because you just lost something huge, for instance, the pregnancy made me drop out of school, I was in senior three, I never had a chance to go back to school again. But I really loved school,” she recalls. After learning that Icyimpaye was pregnant, the man responsible got married “as part of the pregnancy denial”, she says. Now Icyimpaye has moved on, she hopes that soon she will make a living from the trade she has pursued. “Tomorrow may be difficult because I will not give my son everything he needs due to financial constraints, but I am sure I will be a great parent to him and give as much love as I can. I will tell him the truth, and I will show him where his father is,” she says. Fossee Mushimiyimana, another teen mother from Kamanga village, is confident that very soon she will be important to herself, her daughter and her whole family. Her baby’s father fled a long time ago. “The man who forced me to have sex and ended up impregnating me should be arrested once he shows up, he should be an example to other men so no other girl will have to suffer like me,” she says. Parents believe that vocational training is like a legacy for teen mothers, and a way to bounce back, however, the men who defile girls should not be pardoned. According to Vestine Uwimana, not punishing the predators is the reason teen pregnancies are increasing, if he goes unpunished, he can keep impregnating young girls, including his own daughter because he will not know her. “I cannot forgive him, he did not do good to my daughter, he has to face justice, he has to be held accountable for what he did and take responsibility for the baby, the baby must be registered as his daughter. That is all,” Uwimana says. Mfurayabo says the organisation tries to give time to the teen mothers, to listen to them and what they went through. “We help them to understand that their lives have to move on and that their future must be better,” she adds. Some are not ready to return to school and are helped to learn tailoring; the training takes six months before they start working on their own. Rwamagana district’s Vice Mayor in charge of Social Affairs, Jeanne Umutoni, says, “We appreciate her initiative, her organisation has been working on helping teen mothers to help themselves.” Mfurayabo says that the teen pregnancy problem is only growing, and this is why they have decided that in 2021, they will reach out to families in conflict as this will result in proper education of values to young girls. “They will be able to handle problems they face. This could help reduce teen pregnancies because the teens that face this problem come from families in conflict,” she says. They will also simultaneously be reaching out to teen mothers trying to advocate for justice, because, “those who defile young girls are a threat to the community.” “Rwamagana is where I am from, and I wanted to start from my birthplace, this does not mean that I will stop here, I have a goal to reach the whole country,” she says. Mfurayabo also seeks to establish an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre, to ensure good development of the babies. The ECD will also keep the children while their mothers are attending the training aimed at transforming their livelihoods.
