Carolina for Kibera (CFK) exists to empower the community to take lead in finding solutions to their challenges and alleviate poverty. CFK envisions a healthy and safe Kibera, a place where every person, regardless of their background, has a voice in their future and access to opportunities and resources to realise that future. CFK is a Kenya- based non-profit organisation registered in 2003 under NGOs Act and operates in Kibera informal urban settlement, the second largest slum in Africa.

Thematically, the organisation covers programmes on Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Social Services interventions such as the empowerment for youth and adolescent girls, academic scholarships, leadership and mentorship for girls, sports, a platform for mobilisation that is geared to peace-building and leadership development. It also has a strong health programme that provides health interventions in the area of maternal and child health, sexual reproductive health and water and sanitation.

Funzo, an Education for Teenage Mothers project by Carolina for Kibera (CFK), champions the importance of education for adolescent girls during pregnancy and re-enrolment into school after delivery. Unintended and early pregnancies outside of marriage are frowned upon and associated with promiscuous behaviour which leads to discrimination and stigma against teenage mothers. Furthermore, the girl is denied a right to education as she is preserved as being unfit to continue her education. With most adolescent girls being unaware of their rights they conform to society’s expectations and settle. Most girls are from poor households, so the circumstances of their children do not improve exposing them to vulnerabilities leading to a never-ending cycle.

For the adolescent girls, the project creates awareness amongst them of the existence of policies by the government that ensures their re-enrolment to school, create a platform for them to engage relevant government agencies to demand action for change to issues they face, provide linkages and references to scholarships to cater for their education, offer psychosocial support to gain encouragement from each other as they re-enrol back to school and tackle the challenge of being new mothers.