For many girls in urban Kenya, sexual and gender-based violence impacts different aspects of their lives. Silenced and isolated they can be denied access to education, or forced into unpaid work. It may be experienced as emotional neglect, or losing the right to make decisions over one’s own body.
This 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we spotlight 18-year-old Cynthia. Cynthia’s life changed in Form One when she became pregnant and her mother refused to take her back to school. “My mother said schooling was for people who didn’t have children,” Cynthia says softly. From then, school became a memory. She spent her days working full-time at her mother’s salon, unpaid. “She said it was how I contribute to house bills; that’s how I pay for living.”
Her challenges were hard for any girl: child care difficulties, emotional neglect, and forced, unpaid labour. Frequent arguments with her mother over baby expenses and her future sunk her into depression. “Sometimes I would leave my baby with neighbours. The care was never good,” she says. She often thought of marriage. “My mother kept saying, ‘No one will marry a girl who already has a boy child.’ I started to believe it.”
Without contraception or HIV protection, Cynthia was at high risk of another unintended pregnancy and infection. Mentally, she was sinking, until a friend referred her to Tiko’s mental health group.
“Those sessions saved me,” she says. “I met girls going through worse things but still fighting. I learned that my situation wasn’t my destination.”
Through the mental health sessions, Cynthia discovered more Tiko services. She accessed family planning and HIV services, learning how to protect herself and plan her future. Most importantly, she learned about her right to return to school and Tiko’s programme that could help her.
Today, Cynthia is proudly back in school balancing motherhood, dreams, and education. She works at her mother’s salon only on weekends, attends classes during the week, and using money provided by Tiko, she takes her son to a safe daycare centre. She is one of the adolescents, girls and young women who took part in the adult and accelerated education pilot run by Tiko. With Tikos support, covering her school fees, childcare and transport she was able to return to school and sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams in October/November 2025.
“I didn’t think anyone would ever take me back to school,” she says. “It felt like someone had opened a door I thought was permanently locked.”
Her dream now? Beautiful. Bold. Possible.
“I want to be a professional beautician like the women I see on TikTok who do makeup for public figures. My mother’s salon taught me the basics, but I want to do it at another level. I want to study Beauty and Salon Management in college.”
She smiles as she adds, “Tiko helped me take charge of my future. I am protected, I am back in school, and I’m no longer depressed. I don’t hope anymore, I plan.”
“Gender-based violence doesn’t only hurt a girl’s body, it hurts her future. It takes away her confidence, her voice, and her chance to decide what she wants for her life. When a girl is denied school, support, or information, we close doors that should be open to her. Through innovation and partnerships, we are helping girls take back their power. When a girl gets counselling, learns about her health, or returns to school, she starts to rebuild her future with strength. That is why we do this work, so girls can feel safe, make their own choices, and create the life they deserve.” says Beatrice Wango, Innovation Director, Tiko
This 16 Days reminds us:
When you restore a girl’s right to education, you do more than return her to school, you return her to herself.