Greenland: School for Single Mothers

Today we visited Greenland School. This is a special secondary school that is designed for girls who are mothers or are being removed from other dangerous situations.

Tuko Pamoja has one girl here, Ruth. We met Ruth last trip (October 2024). At that time, Tuko Pamoja was sponsoring Ruth’s sister, Agnes, featured in a previous post. We went on a home visit and Ruth was there with her baby, Alvin. Their mother had taken her children and gone into hiding to escape domestic abuse. The family has no financial resources and was in dire straits. Ruth had been pulled out of school to support the family.

Ruth told us repeatedly that she really wanted to finish school. We were convinced we needed to get both girls out of the house one way or the other. Virginia, with magic wand fully charged and ready for action, found a school that enrolls young mothers and their babies: Greenland.

When we first saw Ruth, she was in class. She basically flew into Virginia’s arms.

We first met with the co-head teachers. Samuel and Purity. They gave us the history and mission of the school. At the start of the day we visited, Greenland had 200 girls enrolled and 110 babies. Some of the girls are pregnant. Others lost their babies. Still others had left their babies at home, which is definitely not the preference of the school. And other girls were in the school in hiding. They may be escaping teen marriage or FGM. And some are in hiding from unhealthy relationships before pregnancy.

There are a number of girls whose whereabouts are kept secret. They shared that a few girls had been in relationships with high government officials.

Greenland has 7 locations. In the hiding situation, they will enroll a girl in one school, then immediately move her to another. She will then be confined to the campus for the duration of her education.

I mentioned the girls are greatly encouraged to bring their babies with them to school. This is healthier for the mothers and the babies. They are expected to keep nursing the babies, including being on schedules where a girl can leave class to go nurse her baby.

Above is the main building of the campus. Below is Ruth.

We toured the school after chatting with Samuel and Purity. We also met Rhoda, the mother of two girls at the school, who also works there.

Above, in Ruth’s class. Ruth has a challenge in front of her. Kenya is changing the national school curriculum and rules. Ruth was out of school after 8th grade. She is now too old to be eligible for Form 1 (9th grade). So after a couple of years out of school, she has to skip a grade and start back. They tested her and determined she is OK to continue, starting with Form 2.

We toured the dormitories next. They are segregated into mothers vs non-mothers, and the ages of the babies. The below room is for girls without babies. They put them together so they can sleep better without babies who are up at night. 

The girls had written on the walls in a number of places. 

The pregnant girls are in a separate dorm, getting special meals. The mothers of young infants who don’t sleep through the night are together.

Some of the graffiti.

The below room is for the mothers of toddlers. The mother will sleep on the bottom bunk and her baby on the top. (The top has rails.) When the mothers get up in the morning, there will be nannies seated in the room. The girl will move her baby to the bottom bunk where the nannies can see them. After the girls leave for the day, the nannies take the toddlers over to their room for the day.

The babies are in three separate groups, depending on age. We first visited the toddlers.

Some of these kids will be eligible for pre-primary (PP) school next year. Greenland currently sends a couple kids out to other schools, but that won’t work for everyone. So they are planning to build PP classrooms in the compound for next year. 

We then went into the younger kids’ room. This one was pretty loud. But some kids were still sleeping. They have a number of nannies who work the rooms. 

And, below, the infants. Claudia didn’t hesitate to get in on the action.

Below, Ruth, me, Ruth Kamengere, Purity, and Claudia. Ruth K is a big supporter of the program. She worked for 40 years at Absa Bank and coordinated the donation of a roomful of desktop computers. She is a good connection for us to keep up with.

We are making plans to return to Greenland in October 2025 to teach all the girls and staff self-defense classes. This is a very special place. Their mission speaks to our hearts and overlaps a lot with ours.

After leaving Greenland, we stopped by to visit Shantivia’s family. She is in boarding school and was not home.

Shantivia’s mom is trying to work. Her dad is mostly disabled. He suffered skull fractures in a construction accident, where he was buried alive. He is blind in one eye, can’t smell, developed a stutter, and has balance and stamina issues. But he lived!

After visiting Shantivia’s family, we then went to St Joseph’s Secondary school to visit Abel. We met him in October 2024 when we held a session for young men to talk about supporting girls/women, being an anti-GBV champion, and addiction issues. He led the young men. He is a very dynamic leader.