the voice of young moms

Young moms are strong girls transformed to grow into women at a time they had not prepared themselves in and although they have so much strength, they still need empowerment. YOUNG MOMS EC has been and still is giving as much information on how these moms can obtain this strength to cope with their babies, born or unborn. This blog, however, does not encourage teenage pregnancy and for young girls to fall pregnant at a young age, but focuses on those who already find themselves in this situation.

As a result of this, I feel that I have a great deal of responsibility to warn those who are at the risk of falling pregnant at such age. With the rise of teenage pregnancy and abortion in S.A and especially in the Eastern Cape province, this seems to be an action that needs to be done.

I had interviewed my cousin sister as a case study to show how difficult it can be to fall pregnant at such a young age.

Sivuyisiwe 'Sivu' Mqikela, 24, mother of 2

At just 18 years of age, Sivuyiswe of Mdantsane, East london was doing Grade 10 and pregnant with her first daughter, Linathi Mqikela and that was 2008. The following year she got pregnant with a boy Simthandile 'Boy' Mqikela. Both her children are currently attending school but this is not the case for her.

Sivu is now a full- time mom and says falling pregnant two times had not been her intention and that it took away her dreams of being a chef.

"Since I got pregnant I never was able to go back to school as there was no one to take care of my 2 babies, my mom was too disappointed in me she almost lost hope.''

With both her kids attending school, she has now applied to study at BCC college to further her studies and complete her matric for the year 2015.

As her cousin sister, I am proud that even after such a long time not having to go to school, she has shown great courage and responsibility to never forget about her dreams and that she knows that one is  never too old for education.

Sivuyisiwe with her son 'Boy ' at Eastern Beach

Linathi in her school uniform going to her first class in First Grade

To write this post I was inspired by the strong Kutlwano Moepeng featured on an article 'teen mom cautions her peers' by Omphetse Molopyane of The New Age. In the article Kutlwano tries and warns other pupils like her of the trials and tribulations of being a mom at and a scholar at the same time.