In 2015, Ancilla IRACYADUHA from Gakenke District, Northern Province was defiled at 17 years.

This resulted in early pregnancy, an incident which started a bitter episode of her life.

When her parents knew about it, they took her as a shame in the family and failed to give her a treatment of a pregnant mother.

Her feeding was problematic and she became malnourished which also affected the foetus until birth.

The situation did not change after birth, rather, the baby and the mother remained on the same diet of the other ordinary people.

They both exhibited malnutrition signs.

“We would eat the same meal the family was having. Breastfeeding without having a balanced diet is problematic. There was no effort to think about my case at home,” said IRACYADUHA.

“Only my mother would do whatever possible to find something for me, but she could not achieve a lot.”

Amidst this struggle, IRADUKUNDA’s young sister Clementine IRAKIZA was also defiled three years later, also resulting into early pregnancy, thus experiencing the same struggle like elder sister.

The diet of both mothers would be reduced, and their children becoming the most victims.

The Global Fund/CCM-Rwanda support channeled through BAMPOREZE organization found the two teen mothers amidst this struggle in 2017 for IRACYADUHA and her sister in 2019.

“Before Covid-19, we used to at least look for casual work in people's homes like cleaning and washing to survive with our babies. During COVID-19 we were compelled to stay home, but we were lucky that BAMPOREZE found us and integrated us in their training where they also catered for our wellbeing,” said IRAKIZA.

BAMPOREZE’s training which benefited teen mothers involved introducing them to information on reproductive health, HIV prevention, counseling and other skills that would help them avoid future challenges of unwanted pregnancies.

From 2015 Global Fund/CCM Rwanda through BAMPOREZE supported 2115 teen mothers in Gakenke, Musanze and Nyabihu districts.

In the process of the training, the teen mothers who had nutrition challenges were supported with nutritious food, which defied the malnutrition conditions.

On top of that, with the transport they used to get to facilitate their movement to/from the training venue, some teen mothers did savings and got a startup capital for small businesses.

They carried out.

“I am a fruit vendor now. My business net worth has grown to Rwf 40,000,” said IRACYADUHA adding that fruit vending contributed to her child’s growth because she could spare some  fruits for him.