Married at 15, 17-year-old Zulfatu Yahaya from Jigawa State has had three miscarriages. This is because she believes in traditional healing, herbs and roots. “I didn’t believe in Western medicine or clinics.” She was in hospital at the time of writing this article; seven months pregnant, another pregnancy gone wrong. This particular one started at...

Whenever Sada* talks to young girls her age or younger, they are most fascinated by the fact that she wants to be a plumber. Because “girls don’t do such jobs,” they tell her. She is adamant and averse to the idea that people should be “chosen for jobs that they should or shouldn’t do.” She...

17-year-old Maimuna Salihu is pregnant. This isn’t an isolated occurrence in Andaza, Jigawa State, Northwest of Nigeria. What might be uncommon is how she is feeling. She’s often sick; she has difficulty breathing, dizziness, lethargy, and general malice. She sometimes vomits, loses her appetite, and spends her days either sleeping or thinking about sleep. “These...

My name is Hana Markos, and I’m 19 years old. I’m a member of Kemisie’s VSLA at Teza Gereba Kebele in Kedida Gamela District, Central Ethiopia. Having dropped out in Grade 10 and immediately got married, I never finished school because I thought it would be easier to be a wife than a student. I...

Narok County hosted a three-day cluster meeting from February 11th to 13th, 2025, bringing together health professionals, and county directors to discuss key strategies for improving Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) across several counties. The meeting focused on the the A360 program and its efforts to institutionalize adolescent health initiatives within government systems. The event...

Evidence suggests youth aged 15-24 across many countries struggle to continue contraceptive use, with contraceptive discontinuation rates 25% higher than that of older women. Method-related side effects have been identified as the leading cause of discontinuation for adolescents, but other drivers include changing reproductive needs (i.e. period of abstinence), evolving reproductive intentions (i.e. a desire...

Once upon a time in the quiet community of Rugan Kasuwa, nestled within the Karu Local Government Area in Nasarawa state Nigeria lived 18-year-old Zuwaira Abdullahi. A young bride married to Mr. Isa, a diligent farmer, Zuwaira found herself facing unexpected challenges mere months into her marriage. The source of her distress wasn’t external but...

Zainab Abdullahi’s husband wasn’t the open-minded type. He was not much older than Zainab, who was eighteen years old and five months pregnant. In their community, the Ringim Local Government Area, Jigawa state, teenage brides aren’t a novelty. They were not in the habit of conversing except when asking for money for medical expenses. One...